OLD  PARK  STREET  AND 
ITS  VICINITY 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND 
ITS  VICINITY 


BY 
ROBERT  MEANS  LAWRENCE,  M.D. 

WITH  ILLUSTRATIONS 


BOSTON  AND  NEW  YORK 

HOUGHTON  MIFFLIN  COMPANY 

fcfje  &toersfoe  $«**  Camfirfos* 
1922 


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13.  L7 
,fi3 


COPYRIGHT,  1922,  BY  ROBERT  MEANS  LAWRENCE 
ALL  RIGHTS  RESERVED 


NOV.  1  7 1991 


tEfjc  a&tbcrstlie  $«** 

CAMBRIDGE  •  MASSACHUSETTS 
PRINTED  IN  THE  U.S.A. 


BOSTON  COLLtOh  LIBRAKlf, 
CHESTNUT  HILL,  MASS. 


The  total  elision  of  the  R,  and  the  amazing,  broad,  flat  A,  as  in 
"Park  Street,'*  give  to  Bostonian  speech  a  magnificently  indige- 
nous tang;  hint  at  juniper  and  spruce  forests,  rocky  fields,  pump- 
kins, Thanksgiving  and  pie. 

Harrison  Rhodes 

Boston  is  just  like  other  places  of  its  size;  only  perhaps,  consid- 
ering its  excellent  fish-market,  paid  fire  department,  superior 
monthly  publications,  and  correct  habit  of  spelling  the  English 
language,  it  has  some  right  to  look  down  upon  the  mob  of  cities. 

O.  W.  Holmes 

Let  every  child  that  is  born  of  her,  and  every  child  of  her  adop- 
tion see  to  it  to  keep  the  name  of  Boston  as  clean  as  the  Sun;  and 
in  distant  ages  her  motto  shall  be  the  prayer  of  millions  on  all 
the  hills  that  gird  the  town:  "As  with  our  Fathers,  so  God  be 
with  us." 

R.  W.  Emerson 

There  is  a  region,  lovelier  far  than  Eden's  vales  and  vistas  are; 
Serene  and  sheltered  in  repose  from  every  stormy  wind  that  blows; 
A  place  than  all  besides  more  sweet;  at  once  you  know  it,  Beacon 
Street! 

Boston.  A  Poem,  by  A.  F.  W. 

Boston  is  one  of  the  grandest,  sure-footedest,  clear-headedest, 
comfortablest  cities  on  the  globe.  Onlike  every  other  large  city  I 
was  ever  in,  the  most  of  the  hackmen  dont  seem  to  have  bin 
speshully  intended  by  natur  for  the  Burglery  perfession.  And 
its  about  the  only  city  1  know  of  where  you  dont  enjoy  a  bril- 
liant opportunity  of  bein'  swindled  in  sum  way,  from  the  risin'  of 
the  Sun  to  the  goin'  down  thereof.  There4  I  say,  loud  and  con- 
tinnerd  applaus  for  Boston! 

Artemus  Ward 


PREFACE 

The  development  of  Park  Street,  from  the  time  of  its 
origin  in  1640  as  a  rude  pathway  leading  across  the 
easterly  part  of  the  Common,  through  the  present 
State  House  grounds  to  the  Beacon,  may  be  con- 
veniently divided  into  four  periods.  In  the  early 
days  the  pressure  of  bovine  hoofs  was  doubtless  an 
important  factor  in  its  maintenance  as  a  well-trodden 
trail  up  the  incline  to  the  summit  of  the  hill.  The 
building  of  the  Almshouse  in  1662  marked  the  be- 
ginning of  the  second  period,  which  lasted  about  one 
hundred  and  forty  years,  when  C entry  Street  was 
lined  with  public  buildings  devoted  to  the  care  of  the 
worthy  poor,  vagrants,  and  criminals.  Space  was  also 
reserved  for  the  impounding  of  stray  animals.  The 
third  or  residential  period  included  practically  the 
whole  of  the  nineteenth  century,  when  Park  Street 
was  built  up  with  the  homes  of  many  prominent  cit- 
izens. The  houses  numbered  one  to  four,  as  also 
number  nine,  the  Amory-Ticknor  dwelling,  were 
built  in  1804,  and  the  others  shortly  thereafter.  Some 
of  these  were  reconstructed  wholly  or  in  part  by  later 
owners  in  conformity  with  the  Bulfinch  style  of  ar- 
chitecture. Finally,  within  recent  times,  mercantile 
interests  have  acquired  control  of  a  majority  of  the 

vu 


PREFACE 

estates;  and  the  year  1907  marked  the  disappearance 
of  the  last  resident  on  this  street.  Park  Street  Church 
was  built  in  1809  on  the  site  of  the  Granary. 

Among  the  many  to  whom  the  writer  is  indebted 
for  assistance  are  J.  Collins  Warren,  M.D.;  Bernard 
P.  Verne,  Esq.;  Walter  K.  Watkins,  Esq.;  Miss  Mar- 
garet Fitzhugh  Browne,  Miss  Katharine  P.  Loring, 
Miss  Jane  L.  Motley,  Mrs.  Charles  H.  Gibson,  Mrs. 
Francis  J.  Moors,  Miss  Annie  H.  Thwing,  Dean  Rous- 
maniere;  and  Messrs.  Charles  K.  Bolton,  Alexander 
Corbett,  Jr.;  Frank  H.  Chase,  George  Francis  Dow, 
Edward  Dunham,  William  Lyman  Johnson,  Julius 
E.  Tuttle,  Charles  F.  Read,  George  A.  Sawyer, 
Francis  Manning,  Andrew  McCance,  and  William 
B.  Clarke. 

177  Bay  State  Road,  Boston 
April,  19-22 


CONTENTS 


Beacon  Hill 

1 

Beacon  Street 

11 

The  Laying  of  the  Corner-Stone  of 

the  State 

House 

20 

Park  Street 

.24 

The  Almshouse 

32 

The  Town  Pound 

37 

The  Bridewell 

39 

The  Workhouse 

41 

The  Public  Granary 

45 

The  Granary  Burying-Ground 

47 

Number  One  Park  Street 

51 

Number  Two  Park  Street 

65 

Number  Three  Park  Street 

58 

Number  Four  Park  Street 

62 

Number  Five  Park  Street 

64 

Number  Six  Park  Street 

69 

Number  Seven  Park  Street 

75 

The  Union  Club  House 

79 

The  Amory-Ticknor  House  —  Number  Nine  Park 

Street 

81 

Reminiscences  of  Park  Street,  by 

J.  Collins 

Warren,  M.D. 

— 

98 

Park  Street  Church^ 

115 

• 

IX 

CONTENTS 

The  Estates  Numbered  Eighteen  and  Twenty  on 

the  South  Side  of  Beacon  Street  123 

Number  Sixteen  Beacon  Street  125 

Numbers  Twelve  and  Fourteen  Beacon  Street  130 
The  Athenaeum  Lot  —  Number  Ten  and  a  Half 

Beacon  Street  131 

The  Molineaux  Estate  133 

The  Bowdoin  Estate  139 

The  Bromfield  Homestead  143 

The  Hinckley  Mansion-House  147 

The  Sears  Estate  152 

The  Lloyd  Mansion-House  154 

The  Paddock  Elms  157 

The  Trees  on  the  Common  160 

The  Gingko  Tree  on  the  Common  162 

Ulmus  campestris  venerabius  164 

Index  165 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

Park  Street  Church  and  Park  Street  about  1812 

Colored  Frontispiece 
From  a  fireboard  in  the  Collections  of  the  Bostonian  Society 

Park,  Beacon,  and  Tremont  Streets  in  1722  24 

From  an  ideal  sketch  based  on  Bonner's  Map  and  surveys  in  the 
City  Engineer's  Office,  Boston.  By  courtesy  of  Dr.  James  B. 
Ayer 

View  of  Park  Street  from  the  State  House  52 

The  Old  Gate  at  the  Corner  of  Park  and  Tre- 
mont Streets  98 

Park  Street  Church  about  1870  116 

From  a  photograph  owned  by  Dr.  J.  Collins  Warren 


OLD  PAEK  STBEET  AND 
ITS  VICINITY 

• 

BEACON  HILL 

The  original  name  of  Park  Street  was  Sentry  or  Cen- 
try  Street.  As  early  as  1673  its  upper  portion,  running 
northwesterly,  was  described  as  the  way  leading  from 
the  Common  or  Training  Field  to  Sentry  (now  Bea- 
con) Hill,  on  whose  summit  stood  the  tall  mast  which 
served  as  the  great  alarm  tower  of  the  town.  Near  its 
top  was  suspended  an  iron  cresset,  wherein  combus- 
tible materials  were  deposited.  At  intervals  along  the 
sides  of  the  mast  were  foot  supports,  to  facilitate  the 
ascent  to  the  cresset.  The  first  Beacon  was  erected  in 
accordance  with  a  vote  passed  by  the  General  Court 
in  March,  1635,  whereby  it  was  ordered  that  such  a 
warning  signal  should  be  set  up  on  Centry  or  Centinel 
Hill.  The  vote  read  as  follows:  "It  is  ordered  that 
there  shall  be  a  Beacon  sett  on  Centry  Hill  at  Boston, 
to  give  notice  to  the  country  of  any  danger;  and  that 
there  shall  be  a  ward  of  one  person  kept  there  from 
the  first  of  April  to  the  last  of  September;  and  that 
upon  the  discovery  of  any  danger,  the  Beacon  shall 
be  fired,  and  an  alarum  given;  as  also  messengers  sent 
by  that  towne  where  the  danger  is  discovered,  to  all 

1 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

other  townes  within  their  jurisdiction."  The  early 
settlers  of  Boston  were  apprehensive  of  possible  at- 
tacks by  the  Indians  in  their  neighborhood.  Such 
fears,  however,  proved  groundless;  although  many  of 
the  villages  farther  inland  were  not  so  fortunate.  A 
piece  of  land,  six  rods  square,  on  the  summit  of  the 
hill,  was  set  apart  by  the  Town  for  the  Beacon,  with 
a  passageway  from  the  Common  thereto.1 

According  to  a  recent  writer,  the  erection  of  a  po- 
tential torch  on  the  summit  of  Beacon  Hill  was  a 
noteworthy  event.  Thereby  the  Beacon  became  a 
landmark  in  both  the  physical  and  historical  land- 
scape. But  during  the  long  period  of  its  existence,  it 
does  not  appear  that  any  warning  light  was  ever  dis- 
played from  its  cresset.  It  is  doubtful,  in  the  words  of 
one  historian,  if  there  was  ever  a  spark  of  fire  in  its 
iron  pot.  The  Beacon  was  maintained  in  its  original 
position  for  more  than  one  hundred  and  fifty  years, 
although  not  in  commission  during  two  or  three  com- 
paratively short  periods.  Here  follows  an  extract 
from  the  Selectmen's  "Minutes,"  April,  1741: 
"Whereas  for  many  years  past  there  has  been  erected 
a  Beacon  on  Beacon  Hill;  which  in  the  winter  past 
was  blown  down;  the  Question  was  put  whether  it 
would  not  be  for  the  benefit  of  the  Town  to  have  a 
new  one  erected  on  the  same  place?"  This  was  de- 
cided in  the  affirmative;  and  twelve  pounds  were 
allowed  Mr.  William  Bowen  for  the  purpose.  Accord- 

1  The  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  I,  275. 
3 


BEACON  HILL 

ingly  a  new  mast  of  white  oak  was  set  up  in  the  fol- 
lowing October.  The  Beacon  was  destroyed  again 
during  a  tempest  in  November,  1789,  and  was  soon 
after  replaced  by  the  Beacon  Hill  Monument,  which 
was  built,  as  inscribed  on  one  of  its  tablets,  "to  com- 
memorate the  train  of  events  which  led  to  the  Amer- 
ican Revolution,  and  finally  secured  Liberty  and 
Independence  to  the  United  States." 

The  destruction  of  the  old  landmark  was  announced 
in  the  "Independent  Chronicle,"  December  3,  1789, 
as  follows:  "The  Beacon  which  was  erected  on  Bacon 
Hill  during  the  last  war,  to  alarm  the  country  in  case 
of  an  invasion  of  the  British  into  this  town,  was  on 
Thursday  night  last  blown  down." 

This  was  the  first  monument  of  its  kind  in  the 
country.  It  was  a  plain  Doric  column  of  brick,  cov- 
ered with  stucco,  and  standing  on  a  stone  pedestal. 
The  monument  was  surmounted  by  a  gilded  wooden 
eagle.  It  was  designed  by  the  eminent  architect, 
Charles  Bulfinch,  and  was  his  first  important  work, 
which  owed  its  existence  to  his  patriotic  fervor  and  en- 
ergy. This  monument  was  taken  down  in  1811,  when 
the  summit  of  the  hill  was  levelled.  In  1898  a  repro- 
duction in  stone  was  erected  on  the  same  site  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association, 
and  the  original  inscribed  tablets  were  placed  upon  its 
four  sides.  It  has  been  said  that  the  name  of  Beacon 
Hill  is  as  sacred  to  the  people  of  New  England  as  was 
that  of  Mount  Sinai  to  the  Israelites.  Nathaniel  In- 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

gersoll  Bowditch,  the  learned  conveyancer,  in  one  of 
his  "Gleaner  Articles,"  gave  a  description  of  the  Bea- 
con as  it  appeared  to  an  intelligent  merchant  during 
his  boyhood  days  in  the  year  1787.  "At  that  time," 
he  wrote,  "  there  was  a  stone  basement  on  which  rested 
four  horizontal  timbers  crossing  each  other  in  the 
centre.  From  this  centre  rose  as  high  a  mast  as  could 
be  procured;  and  the  mast  was  supported  by  braces. 
It  was  surmounted  by  a  tar-barrel,  which  being  set  on 
fire  in  case  of  danger,  was  to  serve  as  a  beacon  to  the 
country  around.  There  was  an  apparatus  of  ladders 
for  ascending  to  this  tar-barrel;  but  fortunately  it  was 
never  found  necessary  to  give  this  warning  signal. 
The  hill  was  of  a  very  peculiar  conical  shape,  and  the 
boys  were  accustomed  to  throw  balls  up  as  far  as 
possible  toward  its  summit,  the  balls  rebounding 
from  it,  as  from  a  wall."  The  original  Beacon  Hill 
was  described  by  another  correspondent  as  a  grassy 
hemisphere,  so  steep  that  one  could  with  difficulty 
mount  its  sides;  descending  with  a  perfectly  regular 
curve  to  the  streets  on  the  south,  west,  and  north. 
On  the  east  it  had  been  encroached  upon,  and  the 
contour  was  broken.  Just  opposite  to  the  end  of  Cool- 
idge  Avenue,  on  Derne  Street,  there  was  a  flight  of 
wooden  steps,  ten  or  fifteen  in  number,  leading  part- 
way up  the  hill.  Above  that  point  one  had  to  climb 
by  means  of  the  foot-holes  that  had  been  worn  in  the 
surface  along  a  wide  path  trodden  bare  by  the  feet, 
to  the  top,  where  there  was  a  space,  some  fifty  feet 

4 


BEACON  HILL 

square,  of  level  ground.  In  the  midst  of  this  space 
stood  the  monument.  Descending  by  the  south  side, 
one  followed  a  similar  rough  gravel  path  to  another 
flight  of  plank  steps,  leading  down  to  the  level  of 
Mount  Vernon  Street,  and  terminating  at  about  the 
position  of  the  house  numbered  thirteen  on  that 
street.  "The  sport  of  batting  the  ball  up  the  hill,  and 
meeting  it  again  on  its  descent,  was  played  by  some 
boys;  but  it  was  not  so  easy  a  game  as  one  might  sup- 
pose, on  account  of  the  difficulty  of  maintaining  one's 
footing  on  the  hillside,  which  was  so  steep  as  to  re- 
quire some  skill  even  to  stand  erect  upon  it."  Beacon 
Hill,  which  was  regarded  as  quite  a  high  mountain  by 
the  early  settlers,  is  still  the  most  prominent  height 
of  land  within  the  City  limits.  The  top  of  the  State- 
House  Dome  is  said  to  be  about  on  a  level  with  the 
highest  point  of  the  middle  peak  of  the  original  three 
summits  of  Sentry  Hill.  The  Beacon  Hill  of  to-day 
has  been  described  as  "a  gentle  elevation,  crowned 
upon  its  single  summit  by  the  State  House." 

Yet  whoever  walks  briskly  from  the  Boylston 
Street  Subway  Station  up  the  incline  to  Joy  Street, 
without  pausing  to  take  breath,  may  realize  that 
Beacon  Hill  remains  a  considerable  elevation.  Shortly 
before  the  Revolution,  the  hill  was  covered  with  small 
cedar  trees  and  native  shrubbery,  with  here  and  there 
a  cow-path,  through  which  the  herds  ranged  unmo- 
lested.1 

1  S.  A.  Drake,  Landmarks. 

5 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  old  Beacon  Hill  Monu- 
ment was  a  very  imposing  structure.  It  was  described 
by  a  traveller  who  visited  Boston  in  1792  as  "a  ridic- 
ulous obelisk,  if  such  the  thing  may  be  called,  which 
is  placed  on  the  highest  point  of  the  hill,  by  way  of 
ornament.  It  puts  one  in  mind  of  a  farthing  candle, 
placed  in  a  large  candlestick."  1 

The  exact  date  of  the  Monument's  removal  is  fixed 
by  a  written  statement  preserved  in  the  office  of  the 
Secretary  of  the  Commonwealth,  and  bearing  the  sig- 
nature of  the  person  who  superintended  the  opera- 
tion. Its  wording  is  as  follows: 

Boston.  July  the  8th;  1811.  At  three  o'clock  this  after- 
noon I  lowered  the  Eagle  from  the  Beacon  Hill  Monument. 
At  the  very  same  time  the  next  day  I  undermined  and 
dropped  the  Monument  from  the  hill;  and  no  harm  was 
done  to  any  person. 

Atherton  Haugh  Stevens 

One  of  the  earliest  writers  about  Boston,  William 
Wood,  described  Beacon  Hill  as  "a  high  mountain, 
with  three  little  rising  hills  on  top  of  it;  wherefore  it  is 
called  Tramount."  Historians  have  definitely  located 
these  peaks  as  follows:  the  middle  and  tallest  one, 
Centry  or  Beacon  Hill,  was  situated  behind  the  pres- 
ent State  House.  Westward  of  this  was  a  lesser  ele- 
vation, known  as  Copley's  Hill,  and  later  Mount 
Vernon.  The  eastern  spur  was  called  Cotton,  after- 
ward Pemberton  Hill.    These  three  hills,  forming 

1  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  Proceedings,  1871. 

6 


BEACON  HILL 

Trimountain,  "extended  through  the  centre  of  the 
peninsula,  from  the  head  of  Hanover  Street  to  the 
water  beyond  the  State  House";  that  is,  presumably, 
to  about  the  line  of  Charles  Street.1 

The  laying-out  of  this  thoroughfare  from  Park 
Square  to  Leverett  Street,  near  the  present  Charles 
River  Dam,  was  completed  in  1809.  In  June,  1812, 
the  Town  authorities  voted  "to  have  the  Street  next 
to  the  Ropewalks  at  the  bottom  of  the  Common 
raised,  so  as  to  form  a  foot- walk,  six  feet  wide,  with  a 
row  of  timber  on  each  side,  and  filled  between  with 
gravel,  as  a  further  protection  against  high  tides." 
At  such  times  it  appears  that  the  water  of  the  Charles 
River  extended  from  near  the  corner  of  Cambridge 
and  West  Cedar  Streets,  past  Beacon  Street,  and  up 
the  latter  for  about  one  hundred  and  forty  feet.  When 
workmen  were  excavating  for  the  cellar  of  the  house 
numbered  sixty-one  on  this  street,  they  are  said  to 
have  encountered  shells  and  other  evidence  of  a  river- 
bed. 

As  early  as  1758  the  preservation  of  Beacon  Hill  be- 
came a  subject  for  serious  consideration.  Thomas 
Hodson,  an  unaccommodating  citizen,  and  others,  per- 
sisted in  encroaching  on  the  northern  side,  thus  im- 
pairing its  symmetry.  In  May,  1764,  a  committee  of 
townspeople,  appointed  for  the  purpose,  reported  that 
they  had  viewed  the  premises,  and  that  in  their  opin- 
ion it  was  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  the  hill 

1  The  State  House,  page  5. 

7 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

"  to  have  the  Highway  that  runs  between  the  land  of 
Thomas  Hancock  Esq;  and  the  land  of  Mr.  William 
Mullineux,  and  the  avenues  thereto,  shut  up,  and 
sown  with  Hay  Seed,  till  it  is  brought  to  a  good 
Sword.  And  whereas  the  said  Hill  is  in  very  great 
danger  of  being  destroyed  by  Thomas  Hodson  and 
others  digging  gravel  on  his  lot;  they  are  of  Opinion 
that  it  would  be  advisable  to  apply  to  the  Assembly 
for  an  Act  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  Beacon  Hill." 
This  hill,  as  it  appeared  toward  the  close  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  was  described  by  President 
Timothy  Dwight,  of  Yale  College,  as  almost  a  waste 
tract.  In  the  year  1796  it  was  bought  by  three  citi- 
zens of  Boston;  its  irregularities  and  roughnesses  were 
removed  at  great  expense,  its  western  declivity  cut 
down,  and  a  field  of  about  thirty  acres  was  trans- 
formed into  a  smooth  tract,  affording  ideal  building 
sites.  Soon  after  this  field  was  partly  covered  with 
pretentious  houses.  And  in  splendor  of  building  and 
nobleness  of  situation,  the  summit  of  Beacon  Hill,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  above-named  writer,  was  unrivalled 
on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The  western  side  of  the 
hill,  previously  regarded  as  suburban,  where  wild 
roses  and  barberry  bushes  throve,  was  thus  com- 
pletely transformed;  and  this  result  was  largely  due 
to  the  enterprise  and  business  sagacity  of  Harrison 
Gray  Otis  and  Jonathan  Mason,  who  represented  the 
Mount  Vernon  proprietors.  Various  modifications  of 
the  early  name,  Centry  Hill,  appear  in  old  deeds  and 

8 


BEACON  HILL 

in  the  Town  Records.  Among  these  are  found  the 
following:  Sentry,  Centery,  Center,  and  Centinel  Hill. 
The  name  Century  Street  also  appears,  meaning  Cen- 
try  or  Park  Street. 

The  removal  of  the  original  three  peaks  of  Beacon 
Hill  reduced  it  to  about  one  half  of  its  former  height. 
But,  as  has  been  well  said,  the  Common  remains  a  dis- 
tinctive feature  of  the  topography  of  Boston;  and  the 
fact  that  it  has  been  preserved  with  comparatively 
little  change  from  almost  the  beginning  of  the  settle- 
ment renders  it  the  more  precious.  Originally  pur- 
chased from  William  Blackstone  for  thirty  pounds 
sterling,  its  value  is  officially  estimated  at  this  time 
at  forty-eight  million  dollars,  or  320,000  times  the 
amount  paid  for  it  in  the  year  1634.  But  as  a  health 
resort  the  value  is  incapable  of  estimation.  A  prom- 
enade within  its  borders,  especially  around  the  Frog 
Pond  when  children  are  frolicking  thereabout,  has 
been  recommended  for  persons  of  a  melancholy  dis- 
position. Even  a  nervous  headache  may  be  relieved, 
according  to  one  authority,  by  watching  the  laborers 
in  their  task  of  combing  the  grass  during  the  annual 
spring  cleaning.1  "Will  it  be  believed,"  wrote  an  ad- 
miring tourist  many  years  ago,  "that  this  enchanting 
Common  takes  its  name  from  having  been  a  common 
cow  pasture,  and  is  actually  given  up  to  that  animal?  " 2 

A  Londoner  who  sojourned  at  Boston  in  the  autumn 

1  H.  B.  Williams,  The  Common.  1842. 
*  Ali  Bey,  Journal  of  Travels  in  North  America. 
9 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

of  1920  declared  that  Beacon  Hill  had  for  him  an  irre- 
sistible attraction.  "And  then  Beacon  Street,"  he 
wrote,  "looking  out,  as  it  does,  on  a  green  Common, 
where  Boston  has  the  courage  to  saunter;  and  not  go 
rushing  with  firm-set  jaw  up  from  the  turmoil  of  Tre- 
mont  Street,  or  down  into  it;  intent  on  nothing  but 
getting  somewhere,  and  quite  oblivious  of  the  way  it 
gets  there.  .  .  .  And  the  narrow  streets!  The  scarcely 
more  than  lanes,  which  at  noontime  are  choked  with 
good-natured  strollers,  who  have  the  right  of  way,  and 
cause  no  end  of  inconvenience  to  the  poor  motorist, 
who  is  struggling  to  understand  the  gyrations  of  the 
agile  marionettes  of  the  law;  and  the  shopping  streets, 
whose  sidewalks  are  not  wide  enough  to  hold  their 
travellers,  might  have  been  transported  straight 
across  from  that  part  of  London  known  as  the  City: 
the  old,  old  part,  paved  with  cobble-stones,  which 
used  to  echo  with  the  click-clack  of  hoofs  prancing 
before  some  ornate,  lumbering  post-chaise." 

Long  before  the  motor  car  was  dreamed  of  as  a  pos- 
sible means  of  transportation,  it  appears  that  the 
traffic  in  Boston's  thoroughfares  rendered  downtown 
pedestrianism  somewhat  strenuous.  What  matters  it 
to  a  lover  of  bygone  days,  wrote  Edmund  Quincy,  in 
the  year  1837,  that  the  din  of  busy  life  is  in  his  ears; 
that  he  is  jostled  at  every  turn  by  eager  traffickers; 
and  that  his  escape  with  life  from  the  thundering 
throng  of  drags  and  stage-coaches  is  a  standing  mir- 
acle? 


BEACON  STREET 

The  portion  of  this  highway  lying  between  Somer- 
set and  Tremont  Streets,  formed  originally  a  part  of 
School  Street.  About  five  years  after  the  setting  up 
of  the  Beacon,  a  roadway  was  laid  out  thereto,  ex- 
tending from  the  principal  thoroughfare  (now  Wash- 
ington Street)  in  accordance  with  a  vote  of  the  Town, 
March  30,  1640,  as  follows:  "It  is  ordered  that  the 
Streete  from  Mr.  Atherton  Haulghe's  to  the  Centry 
Hill  be  lay'd  out,  and  soe  kept  open  for  ever."  Ather- 
ton Hough,  a  former  Alderman  of  Boston,  Lincoln- 
shire, had  come  over  from  England  in  1633  with  the 
Reverend  John  Cotton  and  other  prominent  persons. 
His  residence  was  on  the  southwest  corner  of  Wash- 
ington and  School  Streets.  Under  the  date  August  20, 
1660,  is  to  be  found  this  Order  in  the  Town  Records: 
"Whereas  there  was  a  Streete  ordered  formerly  from 
Mr.  Haughe's  house  to  the  Centry  Hill;  and  Lieuten- 
ant Robert  Turner  hath  lately  erected  a  new  house  in 
the  said  line;  It  is  ordered  that  the  Select  men,  with 
the  four  Captaines,  shall  have  power  to  order  the  said 
Streete  to  the  best  advantage  of  the  towne."  It  ap- 
pears that  the  section  of  Beacon  Street  between  the 
site  of  King's  Chapel  and  the  Beacon  was  not  used  as 
a  roadway  immediately  after  being  laid  out;  but  the 
land  was  leased  to  individuals  for  cultivation  in  gar- 

11 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

dening.1  School  Street  was  so  named  by  the  Town  in 
1708,  and  in  the  first  Boston  Directory,  of  1789,  it  is 
called  "South  Latin  School  Street." 

Early  in  the  eighteenth  century  the  western  limit  of 
Beacon  Street  was  at  or  near  the  Shaw  Monument.  It 
was  afterward  described  as  leading  "from  Tremont 
Street  over  Beacon  Hill,  westerly  through  the  upper 
side  of  the  Common,  and  so  down  to  the  Sea."  At 
that  period,  therefore,  it  extended  as  far  as  the  present 
Charles  Street,  to  a  point  very  near  the  former  garden 
of  the  pioneer  settler,  William  Blackstone.  As  early 
as  June,  1724,  Simon  Rogers  was  granted  leave  to 
build  a  wooden  house  on  Beacon  Street,  as  set  forth  in 
his  petition,  and  entered  in  the  Book  for  recording 
Timber  Buildings.  Simon  Rogers  was  the  name  of  the 
landlord  who  was  in  charge  of  the  George  Tavern 
near  the  Roxbury  line,  at  about  that  period.  For 
some  years  after  the  Hancock  house  was  built,  Bea- 
con Street  seems  to  have  remained  in  a  somewhat 
neglected  state.  And  evidently  the  disposition  of  the 
water,  which  poured  down  from  off  the  steep  incline 
of  the  original  Beacon  Hill  in  rainy  seasons,  was  a 
difficult  problem  for  the  Town  authorities.  On  May 
2,  1739,  a  committee  reported  that  whereas  pre- 
viously the  water  from  Beacon  Street  had  mostly  run 
across  the  Common,  and  so  took  its  course  into 
Winter  Street,  its  direction  had  been  changed  by 
raising  the  grade  of  the  Common  opposite  to  the  head 

1  A  Record  of  the  Streets,  Lanes,  etc.,  in  the  City  of  Boston.  1910. 

12 


BEACON  STREET 

of  the  latter  highway.  "So  that  now,"  in  the  words 
of  the  Report,  "the  water  from  Beacon  Street  will 
spread  over  the  Common;  and  as  little  will  run  down 
through  Winter  Street  as  runs  through  most  streets 
of  the  Town." 

One  of  the  first  houses  built  on  Beacon  Hill  was  the 
stone  mansion  of  Thomas  Hancock,  dating  from  1737, 
and  afterward  the  residence  of  his  nephew,  John 
Hancock,  the  patriot,  who  was  the  first  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  under  the  Constitution,  serving  from 
1780  till  1785.  The  price  paid  for  this  house-lot  in 
1735  was  one  thousand  dollars.  It  comprised  about 
an  acre  of  land.  Adjoining  it  on  the  west  were  the 
stable  and  carriage-house.  His  cow  pasture,  which  in- 
cluded the  whole  of  the  present  State-House  grounds, 
had  been  bought  by  Thomas  Hancock  in  1752  for 
eleven  hundred  dollars.  In  1855  it  was  estimated  to 
be  worth  eleven  hundred  thousand  dollars.  "A  thou- 
sand fold  rise  in  value,"  wrote  Nathaniel  Ingersoll 
Bowditch,  in  "  Gleaner  Articles,"  "  is  very  fair  for  such 
an  old  place  as  Boston."  According  to  an  inventory  of 
the  estate  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Cunningham,  land  in 
lower  Beacon  Street  was  worth  less  than  one  hundred 
dollars  an  acre  in  1757.  Previous  to  the  Revolution, 
Beacon  Hill  was  distinctly  rural  in  character;  and  we 
learn  that  it  was  the  acquisition  of  the  Hancock  pas- 
ture as  the  site  of  the  new  State  House  which  gave  the 
impulse  for  the  development  of  this  region. 

On  August  15,  1739,  Mr.  Thomas  Hancock  ap- 

13 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

peared  before  the  Board  of  Selectmen,  and  informed 
them  , that  since  the  Common  or  Training  Field  had 
been  railed  in,  the  highway  called  Beacon  Street, 
whereon  his  house  fronted,  had  been  "so  much  used 
by  Carts,  Horses,  etc;  passing  in  it,  that  he  appre- 
hended what  he  had  done  to  make  the  said  highway 
convenient,  will  be  greatly  damnified,  and  the  said 
highway  spoiled,  and  soon  become  a  nuisance,  unless 
some  means  be  taken  to  prevent  the  same." 

In  response  to  a  petition  of  several  inhabitants, 
whose  estates  abutted  on  Beacon  Street,  setting  forth 
the  necessity  of  paving  said  street,  the  Town  appro- 
priated fifty  pounds  sterling  for  that  purpose  in  the 
year  1754.  It  seems,  however,  that  the  citizens  nat- 
urally became  more  chary  of  expenditures  during  the 
hard  times  immediately  preceding  the  Revolution. 
For  at  an  adjourned  public  Town  Meeting,  held  in  the 
Reverend  Dr.  Joseph  Sewall's  Meeting-House  (the 
Old  South  Church)  in  March,  1761,  a  request  for  funds 
wherewith  to  repave  Bacon  Street  was  voted  down. 

In  November,  1815,  the  Selectmen  authorized  the 
widening  of  that  portion  of  Beacon  Street  lying  be- 
tween the  southwest  corner  of  the  State-House  yard 
and  Belknap  (now  Joy)  Street,  by  taking  from  the 
Hancock  estate  a  strip  of  land  averaging  about  eight- 
een feet  in  breadth.  This  action  was  in  response  to  a 
petition  presented  by  a  number  of  gentlemen  residing 
near  by.  They  maintained  that  the  public  safety  and 
convenience  required  this  widening,  and  that  the  im- 

14 


BEACON  STREET 

provement  could  be  made  at  that  time  with  peculiar 
convenience  "owing  to  the  shattered  and  ruinous 
condition  of  the  fences"  occasioned  by  the  historic 
equinoctial  gales  of  September  in  the  same  year. 

Early  in  the  nineteenth  century,  land  on  Beacon 
Street,  anywhere  between  the  top  of  the  hill  and  the 
present  Charles  Street,  could  be  bought  at  the  rate 
of  about  seventy-five  cents  a  foot.  Dr.  Jerome  Van 
Crowninshield  Smith,  who  was  Mayor  of  Boston  in 
1854,  related  that  a  worthy  carpenter  named  Inger- 
soll,  of  "unsullied  reputation,"  was  employed  to 
fence  in  a  lot  on  Beacon  Hill,  west  of  the  State  House, 
where  there  was  a  luxurious  growth  of  huckleberry 
bushes.  Mr.  Ingersoll  built  a  substantial  fence,  and 
in  due  time  presented  his  bill,  which  the  landowner 
considered  excessive.  After  vainly  endeavoring  to  ob- 
tain a  reduction,  the  owner  offered  the  land  in  pay- 
ment for  the  fence.  This  offer  was  indignantly  re- 
fused. A  half-century  later  the  same  piece  of  land, 
with  the  buildings  thereon,  was  worth  nearly  a  million 
dollars.1  In  the  very  early  days  lots  within  the  Town 
limits  were  divided  among  the  inhabitants,  and  cost 
from  one  to  fifteen  shillings  an  acre.  Swamps  and 
rocky  land  went  for  naught.  There  were  no  side- 
walks until  after  the  Revolution.  We  have  read  that 
the  townsfolk  of  Old  Boston  rose  and  went  to  bed 
early,  wrought  hard,  and  had  long  prayers  several 
times  daily.  "  They  did  n't  laugh  often  enough,  and 

1  The  Boston  Almanac.  1853. 

15 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

were  too  strait-laced.  Dogs  and  small  boys  were  not 
happy.  The  maidens  were  as  demure  as  tabbies,  and 
wore  ribbons.  Their  gallants  wore  periwigs,  though 
the  pulpit  thundered  against  them." 

The  present  State-House  lot  was  bequeathed  by 
Thomas  Hancock  to  his  widow,  Lydia,  together  with 
his  mansion-house,  the  gardens  and  other  adjoining 
lands;  also  various  outbuildings,  including  the  car- 
riage-house, and  his  chariots,  chaises,  and  horses, 
besides  all  his  negroes.  Mrs.  Hancock  died  in  1777, 
and  Governor  John  Hancock  was  her  sole  residuary 
legatee.  The  estate  comprised  "all  the  State  House 
lot  and  lands  to  the  west  of  it  as  far  as  Belknap  Street 
(previously  called  Clapboard  Street,  now  Joy  Street) 
and  all  of  Beacon  Hill  to  the  north  of  it." "  In  1800, 
and  for  some  years  thereafter,  Sumner  Street  led  from 
Beacon  Street,  opposite  to  the  head  of  Park  Street, 
nearly  due  north  and  past  the  new  State  House,  to  the 
Beacon  Monument.  The  location  of  Sumner  Street 
is  shown  on  a  plan  of  Boston  from  actual  survey,  by 
Osgood  Carleton. 

The  first  brick  house  on  Beacon  Street  was  built  by 
the  Honorable  John  Phillips,  Boston's  first  Mayor,  in 
1804.  This  house,  now  occupied  by  the  Misses  Ma- 
son, was  the  birthplace  of  Wendell  Phillips.  In  the 
very  early  days  of  the  nineteenth  century,  Beacon 
Street  was  considered  rather  remote.  When  Mr. 
John  Phillips  moved  into  his  new  house,  his  uncle, 

1  Gleaner  Articles,  page  107. 

16 


BEACON  STREET 

Judge  Oliver  Wendell,  was  asked  what  had  induced 
his  nephew  to  reside  out  of  town!  1  At  that  period 
there  were  but  three  houses  on  Beacon  Street  between 
Charles  Street  and  the  top  of  the  hill.  The  fourth 
house  built  in  that  locality  belonged  to  Dr.  John  Joy, 
a  druggist,  whose  shop  was  on  Washington  Street,  at 
the  corner  of  Spring  Lane.  His  wife  was  an  invalid, 
and  her  physician  advised  her  removal  to  Beacon 
Street,  which  she  was  averse  to  doing,  because  it 
seemed  so  far  away. 

"That  this  part  of  the  city  is  really  on  a  hill," 
wrote  Robert  Shackelton,  in  the  "Book  of  Boston," 
"is  recognized  as  you  climb  it;  and  if,  on  some  of  the 
streets,  you  sit  inside  one  of  the  bowed  windows,  and 
a  man  is  walking  down  the  hill,  you  are  likely  to  see 
him  from  the  waist  up  as  he  passes  the  upper  window, 
and  to  see  only  the  top  of  his  hat  when  he  passes  the 
lower.  This  Beacon  Hill  is  so  charming  a  part  of  the 
city  as  to  be  supreme  among  American  perched  places, 
for  delightfulness  of  homes  and  city  living." 

The  denizens  of  the  "Hub"  are  so  accustomed  to 
raillery  and  banter  regarding  their  crooked  thorough- 
fares and  alleged  provincialism  that  a  few  words  of 
praise  for  Beacon  Hill  from  unprejudiced  observers 
may  not  seem  inconsistent  with  becoming  modesty. 
Anthony  Trollope,  the  English  novelist,  who  visited 
Boston  during  the  Civil  WTar,  remarked  that  Beacon 
Street  bears  some  resemblance  to  Piccadilly  as  it  runs 

1  The  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  in,  225. 

17 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

along  the  Green  Park  in  London.  And  there  is  also 
a  Green  Park  in  Boston,  called  the  Common,  he  ob- 
served. Mr.  Trollope  avowed  that  he  had  become 
enamoured  of  the  Lincolnshire  seaport's  American 
namesake.  The  State  House,  with  its  great  yellow 
dome,  was  sightly  in  his  eyes.  And  the  sunsets  over 
the  western  waters  that  encompass  the  city  were  su- 
perior in  brilliancy  to  all  other  sunsets  that  he  had 
ever  seen.  "I  have  stood  upon  the  keep  of  Caris- 
brooke  Castle  in  the  Isle  of  Wight,"  wrote  E.  C. 
Wines  in  "A  Trip  to  Boston"  (1838),  "on  the  Lean- 
ing Tower  of  Pisa;  on  the  dome  of  the  Cathedral  at 
Florence;  on  the  summits  of  Gibraltar,  Vesuvius,  the 
Acro-Corinthus  at  Corinth,  Greece;  the  Acropolis  of 
Sardis  in  Asia  Minor;  and  on  many  other  elevated 
points  in  all  the  four  continents.  And  I  declare  that 
few  of  the  prospects  thus  obtained  are  equal,  and 
fewer  still  superior,  to  that  enjoyed  from  the  State 
House  at  Boston."  Again,  a  well-known  English 
author  and  traveller,  E.  V.  Lucas,  after  a  tour  of 
sight-seeing  in  this  country  during  the  year  1820, 
admired  the  "serene  fagades"  of  the  Beacon-Street 
houses  overlooking  the  Common.  These  fagades 
he  considered  to  be  "as  satisfying  as  anything  in 
Georgian  London." 

In  some  "  Sketches  of  History,  Life  and  Manners  in 
the  United  States"  (New  Haven,  Conn.,  1826),  the 
author,  Mrs.  Royall,  of  Saint  Stephens,  a  village  on 
the  Tombigee  River  in  Alabama,  thus  wrote:  "The 

18 


BEACON  STREET 

State  House,  Boston,  a  grand  edifice,  with  a  lofty 
dome,  stands  upon  the  highest  ground  in  the  City, 
nearly  in  the  centre.  This,  and  the  cupolas  of  Faneuil 
Hall,  the  Old  State  House,  and  a  dozen  others,  with 
about  seventy  white  steeples,  pierce  the  clouds  in 
every  part  of  the  town.  Much  as  I  had  travelled,  and 
curious  as  I  had  been  to  regard  the  scenery  of  the 
States  through  which  I  passed,  never  had  I  seen  any- 
thing  to  compare  with  this  view  from  the  State-House 
cupola.  Even  my  favorite  scenery  in  Washington 
City  shrinks  into  nothing  beside  it."  And  the  gilded 
Dome  was  described  by  Henry  James  as  "high  in  the 
air;  poised  in  the  right  place  over  everything  that 
clustered  below;  the  most  felicitous  object  in  Boston." 


THE  LAYING  OF  THE  CORNER-STONE 
OF  THE  STATE  HOUSE 

In  1795  the  Hancock  pasture  became  the  property  of 
the  Town;  and  on  May  2d  of  that  year  it  was  for- 
mally transferred  to  the  Commonwealth  "for  the 
purpose  of  erecting  thereon  a  State  House  for  the 
accommodation  of  all  the  legislative  and  executive 
branches  of  the  Government."  The  corner-stone  of 
the  new  building  was  laid  with  impressive  ceremonies 
by  the  Governor,  Samuel  Adams,  on  Saturday,  July 
4,  1795,  being  the  twentieth  anniversary  of  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence.  Preliminary  exercises  were 
held  in  the  Old  South  Church,  where  an  oration  was 
delivered  by  George  Blake,  Esq.,  and  was  received 
with  great  enthusiasm.  In  the  large  assemblage, 
which  included  many  distinguished  officials  and  other 
prominent  citizens,  "every  countenance  (some  few 
excepted)  smiled  with  joy  and  satisfaction.  The  whole 
audience  listened  with  profound  admiration  to  the 
end;  when,  as  if  by  some  impulse  of  sentiment  and 
soul,  the  citizens  filled  the  House  of  God  with  Praise 
and  Joy." 

At  the  conclusion  of  these  exercises  a  Procession 
was  formed,  as  follows:  . 


20 


CORNER-STONE  OF  THE  STATE  HOUSE 

The  Independent  Fusileers 

Martial  Music 

Two  Toilers 

The  Corner-Stone  _ 

on  a  truck  decorated  with  ribbons,  and  drawn  by 

fifteen  white  horses,  with  a  leader. 

Operative  Masons 

Grand  Marshal  ' 

Stewards  with  Staves 

Entered  Apprentices  and  Fellow  Crafts 

Three  Master  Masons 

bearing  the  Square,  Level,  and  Plumb-Rule 

Three  Stewards 

bearing  Corn,  Wine,  and  Oil 

Master  Masons 

Officers  of  Lodges  in  their  respective  Jewels 

Past  Masters,  Royal  Arch,  etc. 

Grand  Toiler 

Band  of  Music,  decorated 

Grand  Stewards 

Grand  Deacons  with  Wands 

Grand  Treasurer  and  Grand  Secretary         , 

Past  Grand  Wardens 

Grand  Senior  and  Junior  Wardens 

Past  Deputy  Grand  Masters 

Past  Grand  Masters  '* 

Reverend  Clergy 

Grand  Master  attended  by  the 

Deputy  Grand  Master  and  Stewards 

Deputy  Grand  Marshal 

Sheriff  of  Suffolk 

The  Agents  of  the  Commonwealth 

His  Excellency  the  Governor 

His  Honor  the  Lieutenant-Governor 

The  Adjutant-General 

The  Quartermaster-General 

The  Honorable  Council 

Members  of  the  Legislature 

Clergy  and  Strangers  of  Distinction 


21 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

In  this  order  they  marched  to  the  State-House  site, 
where  the  Corner-Stone  was  laid  by  Governor  Adams, 
assisted  by  officials  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Free- 
masons of  Massachusetts.1 , 

It  appears  that  at  that  time  certain  elements 
among  the  citizens  of  the  Commonwealth  were  jeal- 
ous of  Boston's  supremacy  as  the  Metropolis  of  New 
England.  For  to  what  other  motive  can  be  attributed 
the  following  extract  from  a  Salem  newspaper  of  Sep- 
tember 15,  1795?  "Notwithstanding  that  the  corner- 
stone of  a  new  State  House  has  been  laid  with  so  much 
pomp  in  Boston,  it  is  doubted  whether  a  superstruc- 
ture will  ever  rest  upon  it;  as  the  factious  attempts  of 
the  Bostonians  to  govern  the  State  render  that  town 
a  very  improper  place  for  legislative  deliberations!" 

On  Thursday,  January  11,  1798,  the  "Supreme 
Executive"  met  the  members  of  the  Legislature  in 
the  Senate  Chamber  of  the  Old  State  House;  this 
being  their  last  meeting  in  that  historic  building. 
And  at  noon  of  the  same  day  the  State  officials,  in- 
cluding the  Senators  and  Representatives,  with  other 
dignitaries,  proceeded  to  the  new  "Commonwealth 
House,"  where  the  Reverend  Doctor  Thatcher,  Chap- 
lain of  the  General  Court,  in  an  eloquent  address, 
"dedicated  the  building  to  the  most  honorable  of 
human  pursuits;  the  honor  of  God,  and  the  people's 
good."  2    Governor  Increase  Sumner  also  made  an 

1  The  Columbian  Centinel,  July  8,  1795. 

2  The  Centinel,  January  13,  1798. 

22 


CORNER-STONE  OF  THE  STATE  HOUSE 

address,  wherein  he  dwelt  upon  the  advantages  of  the 
new  edifice;  commenting  upon  its  convenient  apart- 
ments, suitable  retirement,  wholesome  surroundings, 
and  delightful  prospect.  He  remarked,  moreover, 
that  perhaps  no  more  useful  or  magnificent  public 
building  was  to  be  found  in  the  United  States  at  that 
time. 

The  distinguished  editor,  Richard  Grant  White, 
described  the  State-House  Dome  as  a  protension 
heavenward  of  the  Hub  of  the  Universe;  the  globed 
and  gilded  tip  of  that  axis  around  which  all  that  is 
best  in  western  civilization  revolves,  ever  has  re- 
volved, and  as  it  seems,  ever  will  revolve. 

In  the  opinion  of  the  same  writer,  the  edifice,  while 
not  a  very  wonderful  or  beautiful  structure,  compels 
admiration  on  account  of  its  expression  of  dignity, 
decorum,  and  eminent  respectability. 

The  Dome,  originally  built  of  wood,  was  sheathed 
with  copper  in  1802.  The  red  bricks  of  the  main 
building  were  painted  white  in  1825.  Many  years 
later  the  lead  color  of  the  Dome  was  changed  to  yel- 
low; and  in  1874  a  covering  of  gold  leaf  was  applied. 
The  present  cupola  dates  from  1897,  and  is  a  repro- 
duction of  the  original  one.1 

1  The  State  House  Guide.  1917. 


PARK  STREET 

In  1708  Sentry  (now  Park  Street)  was  officially 
known  as  the  highway  extending  from  Common  (now 
Tremont)  Street,  up  Sentry  Hill,  to  the  former  head 
of  Temple  Street,  within  the  State-House  grounds. 
It  was  sometimes  called  Century  Street,  and  the 
exact  time  of  the  adoption  of  the  name  Park  Street 
is  uncertain.  This  name,  however,  appears  on  Carle- 
ton's  Plan  of  the  Town,  attached  to  the  first  Boston 
Directory  in  1789.  And  in  1800  Park  Street  was 
shown  as  extending  from  the  Granary  at  the  foot  of 
Common  Street  to  the  Almshouse  on  Beacon  Street. 
At  that  period,  we  are  told,  the  appearance  of  the 
now  thriving  thoroughfare  was  unattractive,  with  its 
row  of  old,  dingy  public  buildings  and  dilapidated 
fences.  In  1803  or  thereabout  this  highway  was  laid 
out  anew  by  Bulfinch,  and  was  then  called  Park 
Place.  But  its  present  name  soon  after  came  into 
general  use.  All  this  region  was  for  some  eighty  years 
a  part  of  the  Common.  In  1813  Park  Street  was  men- 
tioned as  leading  from  the  head  of  Tremont  Street 
Mall  to  the  State  House.  Park  Street  Mall  dates  from 
1826,  and  the  iron  fence  surrounding  the  Common 
was  built  ten  years  later. 

On  Bonner's  Map  of  1722  more  than  a  dozen  houses 
are  shown  within  the  irregular  quadrilateral  bounded 

24 


^  c 

O  ** 

«  a 

Q  ^ 


x 


PARK  STREET 

by  Tremont,  Park,  and  Beacon  Streets.  Yet  on  Wil- 
liam Burgiss's  map,  of  about  the  year  1728,  but  three 
houses  appear  on  this  same  territory;  and  these  were 
on  the  site  of  the  present  Tremont  Building.1 

Before  its  improvement  by  Bulfinch,  as  already 
mentioned,  Park  Street  appears  to  have  received  little 
attention.  It  was  described  as  a  narrow,  vagrant 
lane,  ill-defined  and  tortuous,  which  had  not  been 
accepted  by  the  Town. 

Indeed,  the  locality  was  said  to  have  been  hardly 
respectable  before  the  appearance  of  Mr.  George 
Ticknor,  and  the  building  of  his  fine  mansion-house, 
"which  was  to  dignify  and  illumine  the  region  at  the 
head  of  the  street."  And  it  is  a  happy  circumstance 
that  this  former  mansion-house,  although  long  since 
enlarged  and  given  over  to  business  uses,  yet  stands 
as  a  reminder  of  its  old-time  supremacy  as  a  pioneer 
of  respectability  for  the  neighborhood. 

"The  site  formerly  occupied  by  the  Granary  and 
Almshouse,"  wrote  Shubael  Bell  in  1817,  "is  called 
Park  Place,  composed  of  a  range  of  elegant,  lofty 
buildings,  in  an  improved  style  of  architecture,  after 
the  modern,  English  models.  The  upper  end  of  Park 
Place  is  terminated  by  a  stately  mansion,  which  will 
long  be  remembered  as  the  residence  of  that  accom- 
plished gentleman  and  able  statesman,  our  late  Gov- 
ernor, Christopher  Gore.  A  superb  meeting-house 
makes  the  lower  corner,  and  the  appearance  from  the 

1  First  Report  of  the  Record  Commissioners  of  the  City  of  Boston. 

25 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

Common  has  a  fine  effect.  The  venerable  mansion  of 
Hancock  in  Beacon  Street  remains  as  it  was,  aloof 
from  modern  improvements.  This  street  is  now  lined 
with  elegant  buildings  down  to  the  Bay,  which  have 
a  compleat  view  of  the  Common  in  front,  and  an  ex- 
tensive prospect  of  the  scenery  beyond  Charles  River, 
which  nature  formed  delightful,  and  art  has  greatly 
embellished."  * 

The  famous  coast,  over  whose  icy  incline  the  Bos- 
ton boys  were  wont  to  slide,  had  been  in  use  for  this 
popular  sport  from  an  early  period.  It  extended  east- 
erly from  just  below  the  crest  of  Beacon  Hill,  near 
the  present  Unitarian  Building,  down  Beacon  and 
School  Streets,  as  far  as  Washington  Street.  Affixed 
to  the  iron  fence  in  front  of  the  City -Hall  grounds  is 
a  bronze  tablet,  which  was  placed  there  by  the  Boston 
Chapter  of  the  Sons  of  the  American  Revolution  in 
1907.  The  tablet  bears  the  following  inscription: 
"Here  stood  the  house  occupied  in  1774-1775  by 
General  Frederick  Haldiman,  to  whom  the  Latin 
School  boys  made  protest  against  the  destruction  of 
their  coast.  He  ordered  the  coast  restored,  and  re- 
ported the  affair  to  General  Gage,  who  observed  that 
it  was  impossible  to  beat  the  notion  of  Liberty  out  of 
the  people,  as  it  was  rooted  in  them  from  their  child- 
hood." The  boys'  complaint  is  said  to  have  been 
tactfully  worded.  They  maintained  that  the  sport  of 
coasting  was  one  of  their  inalienable  rights,  sanc- 

1  The  Bostonian  Society  Publications,  hi.  1919.  ( 

26 


PARK  STREET 

tioned  by  custom  from  time  immemorial.  General 
Haldiman  was  prompt  in  yielding  to  their  demand; 
and  ordered  his  servant  not  only  to  remove  the  ashes 
from  their  coast,  but  also  to  water  it  on  cold  nights. 

In  the  "fifties"  of  the  last  century  the  "Long 
Coast"  extended  from  the  corner  of  Park  and  Beacon 
Streets  to  the  former  West  Street  Gate  of  the  Common, 
"and  as  much  farther  as  one's  impetus  would  carry 
him."  James  D'Wolf  Lovett,  in  his  fascinating  vol- 
ume, entitled  "Old  Boston  Boys,  and  the  Games  they 
Played,"  gives  a  vivid  account  of  the  sport  of  coasting 
in  those  days;  a  pastime  which  was  keenly  relished 
by  many  of  his  contemporaries. 

Even  after  Boston  became  a  city,  Park  Street  was 
in  a  neglected  condition,  as  is  evident  from  a  petition 
addressed  by  the  residents  to  the  Mayor  and  Alder- 
men, and  dated  June  20,  1823.  The  petitioners  rep- 
resented that  no  common  sewer  had  ever  existed  in 
Park  Street,  and  that  the  drains  there  emptied  into 
a  hogshead  placed  in  the  middle  of  the  roadway. 
This  receptacle  was  said  to  be  connected  by  pipes 
with  the  old  Almshouse  and  Workhouse  drains. 
Within  two  years  the  hogshead  had  twice  burst 
open  during  the  hot  season,  "to  the  great  annoyance 
of  passengers,  and  great  danger  to  the  health  of  the 
good  citizens  of  Boston."  Moreover,  the  petition- 
ers expressed  the  opinion  that  the  decomposition  of 
vegetable  substances  and  the  effluvia  from  bad 
drains  were  chief  causes  of  the  diseases  peculiar  to 

27 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

cities.  They  therefore  requested  the  authorities  to 
adopt  such  measures  as  would  abate  the  nuisance,  so 
that  the  atmosphere  might  retain  its  purity,  and  that 
the  health  of  the  community  might  be  safeguarded. 
In  a  second  petition,  dated  March  30,  1824,  it  was 
stated  that  Park  Street  was  much  out  of  repair,  and 
that  a  new  roadway  was  urgently  needed. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Board  of  Aldermen,  November 
18,  1824,  a  petition  was  received  from  Thomas  H. 
Perkins,  Esq.,  and  other  residents,  who  desired  that 
Park  Street  should  be  widened.  And  later  a  com- 
mittee reported  that  they  had  "examined  the  lower 
end  of  Park  Street,  and  found  it  to  be  a  dangerous 
corner  for  carriages  or  sleighs,  especially  in  winter." 
And  they  respectfully  reported  that  "if  the  propri- 
etors of  estates  bounding  on  said  Park  Street  will 
relay  their  sidewalks,  and  place  them  upon  a  regular 
line  of  ascent  from  said  Park  Street  to  Beacon  Street, 
it  will  be  expedient  for  the  City  to  repair  said  street 
upon  the  McAdam  principle." 

Bliss  Perry,  A.M.,  LL.D.,  a  former  editor  of  the 
"Atlantic  Monthly,"  thus  wrote  in  "Park  Street 
Papers,"  1908:  "And  what  and  where  is  Park  Street? 
It  is  a  short,  sloping,  prosperous  little  highway,  in 
what  Rufus  Choate  called  'our  denationalized  Boston 
Town.'  It  begins  at  Park  Street  Church,  on  Brim- 
stone Corner.  Thence  it  climbs  leisurely  westward 
toward  the  Shaw  Memorial  and  the  State  House  for 
twenty  rods  or  so,  and  ends  at  the  George  Ticknor 

28 


PAKK  STREET 

house  on  the  corner  of  Beacon.  The  street  is  bor- 
dered on  the  south  by  the  Common;  and  its  solid- 
built,  sunward-fronting  houses  have  something  of  a 
holiday  air;  perhaps  because  the  green,  outdoor  world 
lies  just  at  their  feet.  They  are  mostly  given  over, 
in  these  latter  days,  to  trade.  The  habitual  passer  is 
conscious  of  a  pleasant  blend  of  book-shops,  flowers, 
prints,  silver-ware,  Scotch  suitings,  more  books,  more 
prints,  a  Club  or  two,  a  Persian  rug,  —  and  then 
Park  Street  is  behind  him.  .  .  .  Sunny  windows  look 
down  upon  the  mild  activities  of  the  roadway  below; 
to  the  left  upon  the  black  lines  of  people  streaming  in 
and  out  of  the  Subway;  and  in  front  toward  the 
Common  with  its  Frog  Pond  gleaming  through  the 
elms." 

In  June,  1808,  the  Selectmen  authorized  the  con- 
struction of  a  paved  gutter  along  Park  Street,  "to 
prevent  the  wash  from  the  upper  streets  doing  dam- 
age to  the  Common." 

In  1824  Mayor  Josiah  Quincy,  the  elder,  some- 
times called  "the  Great  Mayor,"  caused  the  removal 
of  a  row  of  unsightly  poplar  trees,  which  then  lined 
Park  Street  Mall.  And  with  his  own  hands  he  is 
said  to  have  planted  American  elms  in  their  stead. 
The  latter  grew  to  stately  proportions.  Within  a  few 
years,  however,  many  of  these  beautiful  elms  have 
had  to  yield  to  the  ravages  of  age,  ice-storms,  moths 
and  beetles. 

Park  Street  Mall  was  formerly  called  the  "Little 

29 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

Mall,"  to  distinguish  it  from  the  "Great  Mall/' 
alongside  Tremont  Street. 

About  sixty  years  ago  an  old  blind  man  kept  a 
movable  cigar-stand  on  the  Common,  near  the  mas- 
sive granite  gate-posts,  which  then  stood  at  the  lower 
corner  of  Park  Street.  Here  could  be  bought  so- 
called  cinnamon  cigars,  that  had  a  seductive,  spicy 
flavor,  that  probably  yet  lingers  in  the  memory  of  a 
good  many  "Old  Boston  Boys."  This  same  corner 
has  become  a  favorite  rendezvous  for  pigeons,  whose 
numbers  seem  to  increase  each  year.  They  are  all 
plump  and  sleek,  and  seem  to  be  on  excellent  terms 
with  the  multitude  of  people  who  patronize  the  sub- 
way route.  Any  attempt  to  molest  them,  or  the  very 
tame  grey  squirrel  habitues  of  the  Common,  would 
offend  public  sentiment;  and  the  pigeons  and  squir- 
rels appear  to  be  fully  aware  of  this  fact. 

Tremont  Street  Mall,  between  Park  and  West 
Streets,  presented  a  lively  scene  on  Election  Days 
during  the  early  years  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
For,  alongside  the  old  wooden  fence,  which  then  bor- 
dered the  Common,  were  to  be  seen  long  rows  of 
stands  and  push-carts,  whose  proprietors  offered  for 
sale  divers  kinds  of  refreshments,  of  varied  degrees 
of  indigestibility.  Among  these  delectable  foodstuffs 
were  lobsters,  oysters,  doughnuts,  cookies,  waffles, 
buns,  seedcakes,  candy,  baked  beans,  hot  brown 
bread,  ginger  beer,  lemonade,  and  spruce  beer.  Some 
of  the  venders  were  colored  women,  who  wore  bright- 

30 


PARK  STREET 

hued  bandannas  around  their  heads,  after  the  South- 
ern fashion.1  Mr.  Edward  Stan  wood,  in  his  article 
on  the  "  Topography  and  Landmarks  of  the  Last 
Hundred  Years,"  2  remarks  that  although  all  the 
buildings  on  Beacon  Hill,  including  those  on  Park 
Street,  are  comparatively  modern,  there  exists  abun- 
dant material  wherewith  sketches  may  be  drawn  of 
famous  buildings  in  that  region,  and  of  the  people 
who  have  lived  in  them.  Here  resided  many  men  and 
women  who  have  been  leaders  in  the  social  and  lit- 
erary life  of  the  City.  Here  too  lived  numbers  of  the 
prominent  merchants,  lawyers,  and  men  of  affairs, 
who  were  active  in  promoting  the  welfare  and  devel- 
opment of  the  community. 

The  vicissitudes  of  Boston's  winter  climate  are 
well  known.  In  the  mild  winter  of  1843,  according  to 
a  recent  statement  by  the  editor  of  the  "Nomad's" 
column  in  the  "Transcript,"  "ground-hogs  were 
rampant  all  over  Beacon  Hill  and  the  Common; 
not  having  denned  up  at  all;  and  the  only  snow  of 
that  year  was  in  June."  Whereas  on  New  Year's 
Day,  1864,  milk  froze  in  its  pitchers  on  breakfast- 
tables,  and  thermometers  in  the  vicinity  of  Park 
Street  Corner  registered  sensational  figures  below 


1  Samuel  Barker,  Boston  Common. 
*  The  Memorial  History  of  Boston, 


THE  ALMSHOUSE 

Captain  Robert  Keayne,  a  philanthropic  citizen, 
and  founder  of  the  "  Military  Company  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts," afterward  known  as  the  "Ancient  and 
Honorable  Artillery  Company, "  bequeathed  to  the 
Town  the  sum  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds 
sterling  for  the  purpose  of  erecting  an  Almshouse. 
Other  bequests  of  one  hundred  pounds  and  forty 
pounds,  to  be  devoted  to  this  object,  were  made  by 
Mr.  Henry  Webb,  a  public-spirited  merchant,  and 
Deacon  Henry  Bridgham,  a  tanner.  At  a  Town 
Meeting,  March  31,  1662,  it  was  voted  that  these 
legacies  be  received,  and  that  the  Town  proceed  "  to 
agree  and  compound  with  severall  workemen  for 
stones  and  timber  for  the  erecting  and  finishing  of 
the  Allmehouse." 

Frequent  allusions  to  this  Institution  are  to  be 
found  in  the  Selectmen's  Records.  For  example,  a 
woman  named  Elinor  Reed  is  mentioned  as  having 
been  entertained  there  in  August,  1708.  The  first 
Board  of  Overseers  of  the  Poor  was  elected  in  1691; 
and  from  an  early  date  its  members  were  accustomed 
to  make  periodical  visits  to  all  parts  of  the  Town, 
sometimes  at  night.  They  were  accompanied  on 
these  occasions  by  other  officials,  and  it  was  a  part 
of  their  duty  to  observe  carefully  economic  condi- 

32 


THE  ALMSHOUSE 

tions  among  the  poorer  inhabitants.  It  devolved 
upon  the  constables  to  report  cases  of  idleness  and 
thriftlessness. 

In  Bennett's  "Manuscript  History  of  New  Eng- 
land," 1740,  the  author  stated  that  the  Boston  au- 
thorities provided  very  well  for  their  poor,  and  were 
very  tender  of  exposing  those  that  had  lived  in  a 
handsome  manner.  "And  for  the  meaner  sort,"  he 
wrote,  "they  have  a  place  built  on  purpose,  which  is 
called  the  Town  Alms-house,  where  they  are  kepi 
in  a  decent  manner.  .  .  .  There  are  above  a  hundred 
poor  persons  in  this  house,  and  there  is  no  such  thing 
to  be  seen  in  town  as  a  strolling  beggar.  And  it  is  a 
rare  thing  to  meet  with  any  drunken  people,  or  to 
hear  an  oath  sworn  in  the  streets."  This  first  alms- 
house was  built  in  1662  at  or  near  the  corner  of 
Beacon  and  Park  Streets.  It  was  burned  down  in 
1682,  and  a  Jiew  structure  was  erected  four  years 
after  at  the  head  of  Park  Street,  where  stands  the 
large,  brick  building  known  as  the  Amory-Ticknor 
house.  The  second  almshouse,  of  two  stories,  with  a 
gambrel  roof,  fronted  on  Beacon  Street.  For  some 
years  this  was  the  most  pretentious,  if  not  the  only 
building  on  that  thoroughfare,  whereof  the  easterly 
portion,  from  School  Street  to  the  site  of  the  present 
State  House,  was  laid  out  in  March,  1640.  It  was  offi- 
cially described  in  1708  as  "the  way  leading  from 
Mrs.  Whetcomb's  Corner,  by  the  house  of  Captain 
Fairweather,  westerly  through  the  upper  side  of  the 

33 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

Common,  and  so  down  to  the  sea."  In  a  Deed  of  the 
year  1750,  Beacon  Street  is  mentioned  as  the  "Lane 
leading  to  the  Almshouse."  In  1702  Francis  Thresher 
was  appointed  "to  take  care  in  getting  the  Aims- 
House  yard,  Burying  Place  and  Pound  well  fenced 
in  and  the  Almes  or  Work  House  repaired;  and  to 
procure  some  Spinning  Wheeles  for  setting  the  poor 
at  work."  Although  originally  intended  solely  as  a 
home  for  the  deserving  poor,  the  Almshouse  was 
afterward  used  also  as  a  place  of  confinement  for 
criminals  and  vagrants,  until  the  erection  of  a  House 
of  Correction  or  Bridewell  on  the  adjoining  lot  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century.  At  a 
Town  Meeting,  March  9,  1713,  one  of  the  Articles 
of  the  Warrant  read  as  follows:  "to  see  whether 
the  Almshouse  ought  not  to  be  restored  to  it's  prim- 
itive and  pious  design,  even  for  the  relief  of  the  ne- 
cessitous, that  they  might  lead  a  quiet,  peaceable  and 
godly  life  there;  whereas  't  is  now  made  a  Bridewell 
and  House  of  Correction,  which  obstructs  many  hon- 
est, poor  people  from  going  there."  In  1729  there 
were  eighty-eight  inmates,  the  majority  being  stran- 
gers; and  only  one  third  "town  born"  children. 
The  Almshouse,  as  well  as  the  adjoining  Workhouse, 
was  used  for  the  reception  of  British  soldiers  who 
were  wounded  at  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill. 

During  the  strenuous  years  of  the  Revolutionary 
War,  the  occupants  of  the  Almshouse  were  left  at 
times  in  a  deplorable  condition.   In  April,  1781,  the 

34 


THE  ALMSHOUSE 

Overseers  of  the  Poor  "represented  in  a  most  af- 
fecting manner  the  suffering  and  almost  perishing 
circumstances  of  the  poor  in  the  Almshouse,  and  the 
necessity  of  an  immediate  and  adequate  supply  of 
money  to  provide  for  their  support."  A  year  later  the 
Overseers  reported  that  they  were  sorry  to  be  under 
the  disagreeable  necessity  of  informing  the  Town 
regarding  the  unhappy  situation  of  the  Almshouse 
inmates,  for  want  of  the  necessaries  of  life.  In  1790 
the  building  had  nearly  three  hundred  occupants; 
and  a  committee  reported  that  the  Boston  estab- 
lishment was  probably  the  only  Institution  of  its 
kind  where  persons  of  every  class  were  lodged  under 
the  same  roof.  At  a  Town  Meeting,  May  25,  1795, 
Messrs.  Thomas  Dawes,  Samuel  Brown,  and  George 
Richards  Minot  were  appointed  agents  for  and  in 
behalf  of  the  inhabitants  of  Boston,  "to  sell  at  public 
auction  all  that  parcel  of  land  occupied  for  an  Alms- 
house and  Workhouse,  and  for  other  purposes,  ex- 
tending from  Common  to  Beacon  Streets.'* 

It  was  voted,  moreover,  to  erect  at  Barton's  Point, 
on  the  north  side  of  Leverett  Street,  a  more  commo- 
dious structure;  and  the  new  Almshouse  was  com- 
pleted and  occupied  at  the  close  of  the  year  1800. 

"No  More,"  wrote  Nathaniel  B.  Shurtleff,  in  his 
"Historical  Description  of  Boston,"  "will  the  staid 
townsman  or  the  jocund  youth,  proceeding  to  the 
Common  on  Election  or  Independence  Days,  be  in- 
terrupted by  the  diminutive  hands  thrust  through 

35 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

the  holes  in  the  Almshouse  fence,  or  stretched  from 
beneath  the  gates;  or  by  the  small  and  forlorn  voices 
of  the  children  of  the  destitute  inmates,  entreating 
for  money.  Nor  will  the  cries  of  the  wretched  poor 
in  those  miserable  habitations  be  heard  calling  for 
bread,  which  oftentimes  the  Town  had  not  to  give." 


THE  TOWN  POUND 

At  a  meeting  of  the  townspeople,  held  February  23, 
1634,  it  was  ordered  that  "there  shall  be  a  little  house 
built,  and  a  sufficiently  payled  yard,  to  lodge  the 
Cattel  in  of  nights,  at  Pullen  Poynt  Necke"  (in  the 
present  township  of  Winthrop).  This  was  the  first 
Town  Pound.  In  May,  1637,  Richard  Fairbanks  was 
appointed  foldkeeper,  and  was  allowed  threepence 
for  every  trespassing  beast  or  horse  that  he  brought 
into  the  Fold  or  Pound;  and  twopence  for  every  tres- 
passing calf,  goat,  or  hog  so  brought  in.  In  the  year 
1641  it  was  ordered  that  the  owners  of  any  goats 
"  found  without  a  keep,  should  be  fined  half  a  bushel 
of  corn  for  each  goat  so  found;  and  three-pence  for 
pounding,  where  they  are  to  remain  24  hours,  namely, 
in  the  pound;  and  if  not  owned  by  that  time,  then  to 
be  sent  to  Deare  Island,  where  they  are  to  remain 
until  they  have  given  full  satisfaction."  In  April, 
1708,  George  Ripley  and  Edward  Bartles  were  given 
authority  to  impound  any  horses,  cattle,  or  sheep 
which  might  be  found  going  at  large  or  feeding  upon 
the  common  land  or  lanes  of  the  Town. 

In  an  "Historic  Sketch  of  the  Granary  Burying- 
Ground,"  it  is  stated  that  a  Pound  was  built  therein, 
near  the  present  Tremont  Building,  and  just  back  of 
its  southern  projection.  By  a  vote  passed,  August  19, 

37 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

1720,  the  Pound  was  established  on  a  lot  just  below 
the  site  of  the  Bridewell,  on  Centry  Street,  adjacent 
to  the  northern  line  of  the  Burial  Ground.  In  a  cor- 
ner of  the  latter  enclosure  the  "Town  bulls"  were 
quartered.1 

In  April,  1703,  George  Ripley  was  appointed  "to 
take  care  of  watering  the  bulls,  and  to  put  them  by 
night  in  the  Burrying  Place."  In  April,  1777,  com- 
plaint having  been  made  to  the  Selectmen  that  horses 
were  allowed  to  roam  at  large  on  the  common  land, 
public  notice  was  given  that  all  horses  found  there- 
after upon  said  land,  would  be  placed  in  the  Town 
Pound,  near  the  Granary. 

1  Boston  City  Document  No.  47. 


THE  BRIDEWELL 

In  May,  1714,  the  townspeople  decided  to  provide 
forthwith  a  House  of  Correction,  "for  the  accommo- 
dation of  able-bodied  persons,  who  were  unwilling  to 
work;  the  Almshouse  never  having  been  intended  for 
the  entertainment  of  such  scandalous  persons."  No 
action  was  taken,  however,  until  1820,  when  it  was 
voted  that  the  Selectmen,  Overseers  of  the  Poor,  and 
the  Town  Treasurer  be  authorized  to  erect  a  House  of 
Correction.  In  their  report  to  the  townspeople,  Feb- 
ruary 13, 1720,  this  committee  recommended  as  a  site 
for  the  new  building  the  lot  adjacent  to  and  below 
the  Almshouse;  which  lot  they  described  as  extending 
from  the  upper  part  of  the  Burying-Ground  north- 
ward; and  fronting  westward  toward  the  west  side  of 
the  Almshouse.  The  new  building  was  about  fifty 
feet  long,  and  twenty  feet  wide,  with  a  stud  of  four- 
teen feet.  It  contained  a  common  or  middle  room, 
whereof  one  end  was  for  the  accommodation  of  men, 
and  "t'other  for  women."  The  new  Bridewell  was  a 
brick  structure,  its  walls  being  "two  brick  thick," 
and  its  cost  was  about  three  hundred  and  fifty  pounds 
sterling.  The  committee  recommended  that  the 
Keeper  of  the  Workhouse  should  be  appointed  Mas- 
ter of  the  House  of  Correction;  and  that  "a  whipper" 
should  be  in  constant  attendance,  subject  to  the  Mas- 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

ter's  order.  These  suggestions  were  duly  approved 
and  adopted  by  the  Town.  The  site  of  the  Bridewell 
corresponded  in  part  with  the  present  Union  Club- 
House  lot.  In  May,  1741,  a  parcel  of  the  Common 
Land,  adjoining  the  Almshouse,  was  granted,  whereon 
a  new  brick  building,  ninety  feet  long,  was  set  up  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Poor. 


THE  WORKHOUSE 

In  1736  the  Massachusetts  General  Court  passed  an 
Act  whereby  the  Town  of  Boston  was  authorized  to 
build  a  Workhouse  for  the  accommodation  of  idle  and 
vagabond  persons,  rogues,  and  tramps.  This  was 
done  in  1738,  the  expense  being  met  by  popular  sub- 
scription. The  new  building  adjoined  the  Bridewell, 
and  extended,  partly  in  front  of  the  latter,  down  the 
incline,  facing  the  Common.  Its  lower  portion  abut- 
ted on  the  western  border  of  the  Burying-Ground, 
and  reached  to  the  northern  line  of  the  present  Park 
Street  Church  lot,  where  the  Granary  then  stood. 
The  Workhouse  was  a  well-proportioned,  brick  build- 
ing, having  two  stories  and  a  gabled  roof.  Its  length 
was  about  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  feet,  and  it 
contained  a  large  common  Hall.1 

In  October,  1739,  certain  rules  were  adopted  for 
the  management  of  the  Institution.  It  was  ordered 
that  "the  Mistress  take  care  that  the  victuals  be  well 
and  seasonably  dressed;  the  bread  and  beer  prepared 
according  to  the  direction  of  the  Overseers;  that  the 
rooms  be  swept,  and  the  beds  made  every  day;  and 
that  the  people  be  kept  clean  and  neat  in  their  ap- 

1  The  location  of  the  Almshouse  and  Bridewell  is  shown  in  a  sketch, 
idealized  from  Bonner's  Map  (Edition  of  1743)  and  from  a  study  of 
the  Surveys  of  the  City  Engineer's  Office.  This  sketch  is  in  the  posses- 
sion of  Dr.  James  B.  Ayer. 

41 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

parel.  It  was  also  specified  that  the  common  work  of 
the  House  should  consist  in  picking  oakum,  and  that 
such  of  the  women  as  were  capable,  should  be  em- 
ployed in  carding  and  spinning  wool,  flax  and  yarn; 
also  cotton  yarn  for  candle  wick;  knitting,  sewing, 
etc."  The  inmates  were  forbidden  to  smoke  tobacco 
in  their  beds,  on  penalty  of  being  denied  smoking  for 
one  week. 

It  appears  that  the  Workhouse  was  used  as  a  Hos- 
pital for  British  soldiers  during  the  period  between 
the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill  and  their  departure  from 
Boston  in  March,  1776.  This  fact  is  evident  from  the 
following  deposition.  Whether  the  large  quantity  of 
arsenic  therein  mentioned  was  left  in  the  Workhouse 
with  sinister  intent  or  otherwise,  is  a  matter  of  con- 
jecture. 

I,  John  Warren,  of  Cambridge,  Physician,  testify  and 
say  that  on  or  about  the  twenty-ninth  day  of  March,  last 
past,  I  went  into  the  Work  House  of  the  Town  of  Boston, 
lately  improved  as  an  Hospital  by  the  British  Troops  sta- 
tioned in  said  Town;  and  upon  examining  into  the  State 
of  a  large  quantity  of  Medicine  there  by  them  left;  partic- 
ularly in  one  Room,  supposed  to  have  been  by  them  used 
as  a  Medicinal  Store  Room;  I  found  a  great  variety  of 
medicinal  articles  laying  upon  the  Floor,  some  of  which 
were  contained  in  Papers,  while  others  were  scattered  upon 
the  floor,  loose.  Amongst  these  I  observed  small  quanti- 
ties of  what  I  supposed  to  be  arsenic;  and  then  received 
Information  from  Doctor  Daniel  Scott,  that  he  had  taken 
up  a  large  quantity  of  said  arsenic  in  large  lumps,  and 
secured  it  in  a  Vessel.   Upon  receiving  this  Information, 

42 


THE  WORKHOUSE 

I  desired  him  to  let  me  view  the  arsenic;  with  which  he 
complied;  and  I  judged  it  to  amount  to  about  the  Quan- 
tity of  twelve  or  fourteen  pounds.  Being  much  surprised 
by  this  extraordinary  Intelligence,  I  more  minutely  ex- 
amined the  Articles  on  the  Floor,  and  found  them  to  be 
chiefly  capital  Articles,  and  those  most  generally  in  de- 
mand. And  judging  them  to  be  rendered  intirely  [sic] 
unfit  for  use,  advised  Scott  to  let  them  remain,  and  by  no 
means  to  meddle  with  them,  as  I  thought  the  utmost 
Hazard  would  attend  Using  of  them.  They  were  ac- 
cordingly suffered  to  remain,  and  no  account  was  taken 
of  them. 

John  Warren 
Colony  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay.  Watertown  ss. 
April  3d.  1776. 

Then  Dr.  John  Warren  made  solemn  oath  to  the 
truth  of  the  above  written  deposition: 

Before  me 

James  Otis 
'       a  Justice  of  the  Peace  throughout  the  Colony 


The  French  traveller,  Brissot  de  Warville,  who 
visited  Boston  in  1788,  wrote  that  "the  Workhouse 
was  not  so  peopled  as  one  might  expect.  In  a  rising 
country,  where  provisions  are  cheap,  good  morals 
predominate,  and  the  number  of  thieves  and  vaga- 
bonds is  small.  There  are  vermin  attached  to  misery, 
and  there  is  no  misery  here." 

At  a  Town  Meeting,  March  12, 1821,  a  Committee 
was  chosen  to  consider  and  report  upon  the  subject 

43 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

of  "Pauperism  at  large."  From  the  investigations  of 
this  Committee  it  was  learned  that  the  buildings  on 
Park  Street,  formerly  belonging  to  the  Town,  "con- 
sisted of  two  ranges,  one  of  which  was  used  as  an  Alms 
House,  for  the  reception  of  persons  whom  it  became 
a  duty  of  charity  to  relieve  from  distress;  and  the 
other  as  a  Work  House,  where  disorderly  and  disso- 
lute people  were  restrained  of  their  liberty,  and  com- 
pelled to  work  for  their  support."  Between  these  two 
buildings  there  was  a  smaller  one,  called  a  Bridewell, 
with  grated  cells.  This  served  as  a  House  of  Correc- 
tion, for  the  confinement  of  such  persons  as  were  not 
amenable  to  milder  treatment.  These  several  Insti- 
tutions were  intended  for  the  accommodation  of  all 
classes  of  the  poor.  But  a  distinction,  previously 
neglected,  was  made  between  the  virtuous  and  vicious. 
Enlightened  public  opinion  demanded  that  innocent 
unfortunates  should  not  be  regarded  as  criminals,  nor 
confined  in  the  same  institution  with  law-breakers. 
In  the  latter  class  the  Town  Records  designate  vag- 
abonds, pilferers,  beggars,  night-prowlers,  wantons, 
stubborn  children,  wandering  fortune-tellers,  and 
other  individuals  whose  freedom  from  restraint  was 
deemed  a  menace  to  the  public  welfare.  As  early  as 
1662  authority  was  given  magistrates  to  cause  the 
arrest  of  idle  vagrants,  and  to  confine  them  in  a  House 
of  Correction. 


THE  PUBLIC  GRANARY 

In  April,  1728,  the  Town  voted  that  "a  Grainery  be 
built  on  the  Common,  near  the  Almshouse  ";  and  that 
a  sum  not  exceeding  eleven  hundred  pounds  sterling 
be  appropriated  therefor.  The  location  of  this  build- 
ing was  a  little  to  the  north  of  the  Park  Street  Subway 
entrance.  In  the  year  1737,  "to  accommodate  the 
Workhouse,  and  to  make  the  Appearance  or  Prospect 
the  better/'  the  Granary  was  removed  to  the  corner 
of  Long  Acre  Street,  where  the  Park  Street  Church 
now  stands.  The  Granary  was  the  most  roomy  edifice 
in  the  Town,  occupying  an  area  of  twenty-four  hun- 
dred square  feet.  It  was  built  of  wood,  with  oaken 
rafters,  and  had  a  storing  capacity  for  twelve  thou- 
sand bushels  of  grain,  chiefly  wheat,  rye,  and  Indian 
corn.  It  was  a  prominent  landmark  in  Boston,  and 
gave  its  name  to  the  adjacent  Burying-Ground.  At  a 
meeting  of  the  Selectmen,  August  2,  1738,  it  was  re- 
ported that  "the  tar  under  the  Granary  heats  the 
grain  that  lies  on  the  lower  floor,  and  damnifies  it; 
also  that  weevils  have  taken  the  corn,  and  mice  annoy 
the  corn  much,  being  very  numerous."  The  chief 
function  of  the  Granary  was  its  service  as  a  reposi- 
tory, where  the  poor  might  buy  grain  in  small  quan- 
tities at  a  slight  advance  over  its  cost.  In  1795  it  was 
decided  to  sell  the  building;  but  for  some  years  there- 

45 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

after  it  was  occupied  by  various  tradespeople,  and 
portions  of  it  were  devoted  to  the  sale  of  refreshments, 
and  to  the  storage  of  second-hand  furniture.  Finally 
in  1809  the  Granary  was  removed  to  Commercial 
Point,  Dorchester,  where  it  was  reconstructed  and 
used  as  a  tavern.  The  sails  for  the  famous  frigate 
Constitution  (which  was  launched  in  October,  1797, 
at  Hart's  Ship  Yard,  now  Constitution  Wharf)  were 
made  in  the  Granary,  which  was  the  only  available 
building  large  enough  for  the  purpose. 


THE  GRANARY  BURYING-GROUND 

Occupies  land  taken  in  1660  from  the  Common, 
which  formerly  extended  northeasterly  as  far  as  the 
present  Tremont  Building.  It  was  the  third  Ceme- 
tery in  Boston,  and  was  originally  called  the  South 
Burying-Ground;  afterward  the  Central  or  Middle 
Burying-Ground.  Its  present  name  dates  from  1737. 
In  April,  1719,  the  Town  ordered  that  "the  South 
Burying  Place  should  be  enlarged  next  the  Common 
or  Training  Field."  This  may  account  for  the  finding 
of  some  tombstones  and  human  bones  when  excava- 
tions were  made  for  the  foundation  of  a  drinking- 
fountain  at  the  foot  of  Park  Street  Mall,  where  a 
memorial  tablet  now  stands,  about  the  middle  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  No  fence  separated  the  burial 
enclosure  from  the  Common  until  1739,  when  the 
Town  ordered  that  one  should  be  set  up  between 
Common  and  Beacon  Streets.  It  consisted  of  a  row 
of  posts  surmounted  by  a  rail,  and  was  placed  there 
"in  order  to  prevent  carts  etc.  from  passing  upon 
and  through  the  Common,  and  spoiling  the  herbage 
thereof."  In  the  Town  Records,  1759,  the  enclosure 
was  mentioned  as  "the  South  Burial  Ground,  on  the 
back  of  the  Work  House."  This  hallowed  ground  is 
the  resting-place  of  many  famous  personages,  includ- 
ing Edward  Rawson,  who  served  as  Secretary  of  the 

47 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

Colony  for  thirty-six  years;  his  contemporary,  John 
Hull,  the  celebrated  mint  master,  and  the  latter 's 
son-in-law,  Chief  Justice  Samuel  Sewall. 

Here  repose  also  the  patriots,  John  Hancock  and 
Samuel  Adams,  besides  many  of  the  earlier  Governors 
of  Massachusetts;  Jonathan  Phillips,  the  first  Mayor 
of  Boston,  and  Paul  Revere.  The  oldest  epitaph  bears 
the  date  1666,  and  is  in  memory  of  Elizabeth  Neal, 
aged  three  days. 

The  Franklin  monument,  erected  by  Benjamin 
Franklin  in  memory  of  his  parents,  had  the  following 
inscription : 

Josiah  Franklin  and  Abiah  his  wife,  lie  here  interred. 
They  lived  lovingly  together  in  wedlock  fifty-five  years; 
and  without  an  estate  or  any  careful  employment;  by 
constant  labor  and  honest  industry,  maintained  a  large 
family  comfortably,  and  brought  up  thirteen  children 
and  seven  grandchildren  respectably.  From  this  instance, 
Reader,  be  encouraged  to  diligence  in  thy  calling,  and 
distrust  not  Providence.  He  was  a  pious  and  prudent  man; 
she  a  virtuous  woman.  Their  youngest  son,  in  filial  re- 
gard to  their  memory,  places  this  stone.  J.  F.  Born, 
1655.  Died,  1744.  Art.  89.  A.  F.  Born,  1667.  Died, 
1752. 

Ad.  85. 

The  original  inscription  having  been  nearly  obliterated, 
a  number  of  citizens  erected  this  monument  as  a  mark  of 
respect  for  the  illustrious  author,  mdcccxxvii.1 


1  To  Dr.  J.  C.  Warren  belongs  the  credit  of  raising  funds  for  this  object. 
The  granite  blocks  were  quarried  from  Bunker  Hill  ledge,  and  the  obelisk 

48 


THE  GRANARY  BURYING-GROUND 

Within  this  enclosure  two  hundred  and  sixty-six  Rev- 
olutionary soldiers  were  buried.  Here  also  is  the  resting- 
place  of  seventeen  members  of  the  Boston  Tea  Party. 

Perhaps  the  most  curious  epitaph  is  that  of  Mary 
Brackett,  who  died  in  1679: 

"Under  these  clods  a  pretious  gemm  ly(es)  hear, 
Belov'd  of  God,  &  of  her  husband  dear; 
Pius  and  prudent,  helpful  to  neighbors  all; 
By  day  and  night,  whenever  they  did  call. 
Pelican  like  she  freely  spilt  her  blood, 
To  feed  her  chickens,  and  to  do  them  good." 
•  •••••• 

The  stone  wall  and  tall  iron  fence  along  the  Tre- 
mont  Street  side  were  erected  during  the  adminis- 
tration of  Mayor  Samuel  Turell  Armstrong  in  1836. 
No  trees  adorned  the  enclosure  until  about  the  year 
1825;  but  soon  thereafter  a  considerable  number 
were  planted,  including  specimens  of  the  willow, 
larch,  maple,  bass-wood,  and  mountain-ash.  At 
this  time  (1919)  about  forty  large  and  thriving  shade 
trees  remain.  Among  them  are  English  elms,  horse- 
chestnuts  and  lindens.  The  perpetual  care  of  the 
cemetery  is  assumed  by  the  City  authorities;  but  this 
does  not  apply  to  the  monuments  and  tombstones, 
whose  oversight  devolves  upon  individuals.  There 
have  been  about  8030  interments  during  a  period  of 
two  hundred  and  sixty  years.  Prominent  among  the 

was  designed  by  Solomon  Willard.     The  corner-stone  was  laid  June 
27,  1827. 

49 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

many  notabilities  who  here  repose  are  Thomas  Fleet, 
the  printer  and  publisher  (1685-1758), and  his  moth- 
er-in-law, Elizabeth  Vergoose,  who  was  believed  by 
many  to  have  been  the  original  Mother  Goose.  But 
proof  of  this  is  lacking.  We  have  the  testimony  of 
one  of  her  descendants  that  she  was  buried  here  in 
1759,  although  no  stone  bearing  her  name  is  now 
standing. 


NUMBER  ONE  PARK  STREET 

On  the  lower  portion  of  this  land  (adjoining  the  Gran- 
ary lot,  where  the  Church  now  stands)  Mr.  Isaac  P. 
Davis  built  a  four-storied,  brick  house,  which  was 
the  residence  of  General  Welles  from  1805  until  1826. 
In  June  of  the  following  year  his  heirs  sold  the  prem- 
ises to  Dr.  J.  C.  Warren,  and  they  remained  in  the 
possession  of  members  of  the  Warren  family  for 
about  seven  years,  when  Edmund  Dwight  became 
their  owner.  He  was  a  native  of  Springfield,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  a  Yale  graduate  of  1799.  Later  he  be- 
came a  merchant,  and  was  active  in  business  enter- 
prises, especially  in  the  establishment  of  extensive 
cotton  mills  in  Hampden  County,  where  there  are 
superior  water-power  facilities.  Mr.  Dwight  was 
also  a  patron  of  learning,  and  with  others  was  in- 
strumental in  founding  Normal  Schools  in  the  Bay 
State.  In  the  spring  of  1858  the  ownership  of  this 
house  passed  to  Jane,  Mary,  and  Anne  Wigglesworth, 
who  made  it  their  home  for  many  years.  Their 
brother,  Thomas  Wigglesworth,  a  prominent  business 
man  of  Boston,  also  lived  there  for  nearly  half  a 
century,  until  his  death  in  March,  1907.  This  was  the 
last  house  on  Park  Street  to  be  occupied  as  a  resi- 
dence. 

The  emigrant  ancestor  of  the  Wigglesworths,  of 

51 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

Boston,  was  Edward,  who  came  over  with  his  wife 
and  son,  Michael,  in  the  year  1638.  He  was  de- 
scribed as  one  of  those  resolute  Puritans,  who  with 
their  families  found  a  refuge  from  religious  persecu- 
tion in  what  was  then  the  New  England  wilderness. 
Here  they  had  to  brave  the  rigors  of  a  severe  winter 
climate  with  scanty  protection;  and  were  moreover 
exposed  to  danger  from  hostile  Indians.  Their  son, 
the  Reverend  Michael  Wigglesworth  (1631-1705) 
Harvard,  1651,  clergyman  and  poet,  stated  in  his 
"Reminiscences"  that  he  was  the  son  of  "Godly 
parents,  who  feared  the  Lord  greatly  even  from  their 
youth."  But  they  had  lived  in  an  ungodly  place, 
where  the  children  had  learned  wickedness  betimes. 
"These  Godly  parents  of  mine,"  he  wrote,  "meeting 
with  opposition  and  persecution  for  religion,  took  up 
resolution  to  pluck  up  their  stakes,  and  remove  them- 
selves to  New  England.  And  the  Lord  brought  them 
hither,  and  landed  them  at  Charlstown;  and  me 
along  with  them,  being  then  a  child  not  full  seven 
years  old.  After  about  seven  weeks'  stay  at  Charls- 
town, my  parents  removed  again  by  sea  to  New 
Haven.  We  dwelt  in  a  cellar,  partly  under  ground, 
covered  with  earth,  the  first  winter."  After  gradua- 
tion Michael  Wigglesworth  served  as  a  Tutor,  and 
also  as  a  Fellow  of  the  College  for  ten  years.  In  the 
meantime  he  was  preparing  himself  for  the  ministry, 
and  was  ordained  pastor  of  a  church  in  Maiden  in 
1653.   Among  his  poetical  effusions  are  some  verses 

52 


■  1 

11 

TTT5 

• 

rain  •ilvJE**  :  'Sv  «™2r  W  11  yjS 

B*wm!IWWIiljlllH^«^tl»i«nMrt«^3''               r*4"'    i 

VIEW  OF  PARK  STREET  FROM  THE  STATE  HOUSE 

Showing  Ticknor  House  at  left  and  the  Sidewalk  with 

Trees  along  the  Common  Side 


NUMBER  ONE  PARK  STREET 

relating  to  certain  epidemic  affections  then  preva- 
lent. A  specimen  here  follows:  "New  England, 
where  for  many  years  you  hardly  heard  a  cough;  and 
where  Physicians  had  no  work,  now  finds  them  work 
enough.  Now  colds  and  coughs,  rheums  and  sore 
throats  do  more  and  more  abound;  now  agues  sore 
and  feavers  strong  in  every  place  are  found."  The 
Reverend  Mr.  Wigglesworth  was  the  author  of  va- 
rious theological  treatises,  whereof  the  most  noted 
was  a  poem  entitled  "The  Day  of  Doom." 

Edward  Wigglesworth,  a  son  of  Michael  (1692- 
1765)  Harvard,  1710;  S.T.D.,  1730,  was  the  first 
Hollis  Professor  of  Divinity  of  the  College,  serv- 
ing forty-four  years.  His  son,  Edward  (1732-94), 
Harvard,  1749;  A.M.,  Yale,  1752,  succeeded  his 
father  as  Hollis  Professor,  and  held  the  position 
twenty -nine  years.  He  was  of  a  scientific  turn  of 
mind,  and  in  1775  ventured  the  prediction  that  this 
country  would  have  a  population  of  ninety  million 
at  the  close  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

Thomas  Wigglesworth,  the  Park  Street  resident, 
was  a  merchant,  engaged  in  the  Calcutta  trade.  He 
was  short  in  stature,  and  an  enthusiastic  pedestrian, 
who  took  long  walks  in  the  early  morning,  regard- 
less of  weather  conditions.  He  usually  wore  at  such 
times  an  old-fashioned  spencer,  or  short  outer  gar- 
ment, over  a  swallow-tailed  coat. 

Mr.  Wigglesworth  was  an  energetic  man,  and  "a 
model  of  mercantile  integrity."  He  was  wont  to  de- 

53 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

clare  that  he  would  maintain  his  residence  adjoining 
Park  Street  Church  to  the  last,  even  if  the  whole 
City  of  Boston  were  offered  him  in  exchange  therefor! 
Although  his  life  was  quiet  and  uneventful,  and  he 
never  held  any  public  office,  his  good  judgment  and 
ability  in  the  management  of  important  business 
transactions  were  well  known  and  appreciated. 
"Park  Street,"  wrote  a  correspondent  in  July,  1895, 
"once  the  site  of  princely  residences  of  aristocratic 
Bostonians,  has  been  so  far  given  up  to  business 
purposes  and  club-houses,  that  now  only  one  dwell- 
ing remains,  a  modest,  brick  structure,  bearing  upon 
the  old-fashioned  door-plate  the  inscription  *T.  Wig- 
glesworth.'  " 


NUMBER  TWO  PARK  STREET 

On  March  24,  1801,  the  Town  sold  the  lot  adjoining 
the  Granary,  measuring  seventy-eight  feet  on  Gentry 
(now  Park)  Street,  to  General  Welles,  whose  wife, 
Elizabeth,  was  a  daughter  of  General  Joseph  Warren. 
The  new  owner  soon  after  conveyed  the  northerly 
half  to  Isaac  P.  Davis,  rope-maker,  who  built  thereon 
a  brick  dwelling-house,,  which  he  very  soon  sold  to 
Francis  C.  Lowell.  The  latter,  after  finishing  it  off, 
transferred  it  to  Jonathan  Mason,  whose  daughter 
was  the  wife  of  Dr.  John  C.  Warren,  its  first  inhab- 
itant. "The  new  owner  at  once  allowed  the  young 
couple  to  occupy  the  house,  and  thither  they  re- 
moved in  the  month  of  October,  1805.  There  they 
continued  to  dwell  until  Mr.  Mason's  death,  when  it 
was  found  that  he  had  left  the  estate  to  his  daughter, 
Mrs.  Warren.  After  the  decease  of  the  latter,  it 
came  to  her  children  by  descent;  as  she  left  no  will; 
and  Dr.  Warren,  their  father,  bought  their  respec- 
tive interests,  thus  becoming  the  owner  thereof  ab- 
solutely. At  his  death  he  bequeathed  the  'mansion- 
house  in  Park  Street,  valued  at  forty  thousand  dol- 
lars/ to  his  son,  Mason,  in  fee  simple;  from  whom  it 
ultimately  passed  by  his  will  to  Mrs.  Warren  for  life, 
with  remainder  to  his  children."  The  house  re- 
mained unchanged  until  the  spring  of  1877,  when  it 

55 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

was  taken  down,  and  shortly  after  replaced  by  the 
present  Warren  Building. 

A  somewhat  minute  description  of  this  house  is 
given  in  a  "Memoir  of  Jonathan  Mason  Warren, 
M.D.,"  by  Howard  Payson  Arnold,  1886.  The  office 
or  study,  on  the  left  of  the  main  entrance,  was  de- 
scribed as  a  fairly  spacious  room,  with  an  air  of  an- 
cient and  prosperous  dignity.  Beneath  this  office 
was  a  place  of  retirement  for  students.  This  apart- 
ment was  devoted  to  medical  and  surgical  work,  and 
the  compounding  of  drugs.  "From  the  back  win- 
dows of  the  house  one  overlooked  the  Burying- 
Ground,  and  the  rears  of  all  the  other  dwellings 
which  surrounded  it.  Passing  to  the  front  of  the 
edifice,  one  was  impressed  with  a  prompt  and  strik- 
ing contrast.  The  parlors  at  the  head  of  one  flight  of 
stairs,  and  the  two  chambers  above  them,  overlooked 
the  Common,  sloping  in  a  gentle  and  verdurous 
expanse  to  the  water,  which  then  lapped  its  lower 
boundary."  The  writer  dwells  further  upon  the 
beauty  of  the  western  view  from  Dr.  Warren's  win- 
dows. The  Great  Elm  and  Flagstaff  Hill  were  promi- 
nent features  of  the  landscape;  and  in  the  distance 
the  Blue  Hills  of  Milton. 

In  the  early  days  of  Christian  Science,  meetings 
were  held  at  the  houses  of  different  Church  members. 
Hawthorne  Hall,  at  Number  Two  Park  Street,  with  a 
seating  capacity  of  two  hundred  and  twenty-five,  was 
the  scene  of  the  first  public  meeting,  in  November, 

56 


NUMBER  TWO  PARK  STREET 

1883;  and  that  Hall  has  therefore  been  appropriately 
called  the  cradle  of  the  Christian  Science  Church. 
The  following  Notice  dates  from  that  period:  "The 
Church  of  Christ  respectfully  invites  you  to  attend 
their  Services  at  number  two  Park  Street,  Hawthorne 
Hall,  every  Sunday  at  3  p.m.;  and  learn  how  to  heal 
the  sick  with  Christianity.  Mrs.  Eddy  teaches 
Metaphysical  Healing  at  551  Shawmut  Avenue, 
Boston.  Many  certificates  could  be  given  of  the 
sick,  healed  by  her  lectures."  The  last  service  at 
Hawthorne  Hall  was  held,  October  18,  1885.  Mrs. 
Eddy  herself  was  accustomed  to  preach  at  the  Park 
Street  Services,  "and  was  always  effective  on  the 
rostrum."  * 

A  copy  of  the  Notice  given  above  may  be  seen  at 
the  book-store  of  Messrs.  Smith  &  McCance,  on  the 
site  of  Hawthorne  Hall. 

1  The  Life  of  Mary  Baker  Eddy. 


NUMBER  THREE  PARK  STREET 

Peter  Chardon  Brooks,  a  distinguished  merchant 
and  philanthropist,  of  Boston,  appears  to  have  been 
the  first  owner  of  this  property.  He  was  a  son  of  Ed- 
ward Brooks,  A.M.,  of  Medford.  Beginning  business 
as  an  insurance  broker,  he  became  President  of  the 
New  England  Insurance  Company.  After  holding 
this  position  for  several  years,  he  retired.  Mr.  Brooks 
was  also  President  of  the  Massachusetts  Hospital 
Life  Insurance  Company,  and  a  member  of  the  State 
Senate.  In  later  life  he  was  active  in  charitable  work. 
The  estate  passed  from  Mr.  Brooks  to  Jonathan 
Davis,  merchant,  November  10,  1802;  and  the  latter 
sold  it,  April  25,  1804,  to  George  Cabot,  Esq.,  being 
"a  lot  of  land  on  Centry  Street,  now  Park  Street, 
near  the  Common  or  Mall  in  Boston."  Mr.  Cabot 
was  a  leader  of  the  Federalist  Party;  he  served  one 
year  as  Secretary  of  the  Navy  during  the  Revolu- 
tionary War,  and  afterward  five  years  as  United 
States  Senator.  He  was  one  of  a  group  of  prominent 
men  who  contributed  political  articles  to  the  Boston 
newspapers  of  those  days;  his  communications  ap- 
pearing in  the  columns  of  the  "Columbian  Centinel." 
In  April,  1809,  Richard  Sullivan,  Esq.  (1779-1861), 
paid  Mr.  Cabot  sixteen  thousand  dollars,  and  became 
owner  of  the  premises.  Mr.  Sullivan  was  a  grandson 

58 


NUMBER  THREE  PARK  STREET 

of  John  Sullivan,  of  Limerick,  Ireland;  and  a  son  of 
James,  who  was  Attorney-General  of  the  Bay  State 
in  1790.  Richard  Sullivan  was  a  native  of  Groton, 
and  a  member  of  the  Harvard  Class  of  1798.  He 
served  as  an  Overseer  of  the  College  for  thirty-two 
years.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  July,  1801; 
but  having  an  independent  fortune,  did  not  continue 
long  in  the  practice  of  law.  During  the  War  of  1812 
he  was  second  in  command  of  a  cavalry  troop,  called 
the  Hussars,  formed  by  the  Honorable  Josiah  Quincy, 
the  elder.  The  troop  was  well  mounted,  and  their 
uniforms  were  brilliant  and  effective.  "The  members 
were  thoroughly  drilled,  and  being  under  strict  disci- 
pline, they  made  an  imposing  display."  Their  dress 
included  a  short  overcoat  or  spencer,  which  was  left 
unbuttoned  and  thrown  back,  revealing  a  gorgeous 
vest;  and  their  headgear  consisted  of  a  square-topped 
hat,  with  tassels  and  a  plume.  During  the  political 
campaign  of  1807,  when  James  Sullivan  was  a  candi- 
date for  Governor,  an  article  appeared  in  the  "Cen- 
tinel"  reflecting  upon  his  character.  Thereupon  his 
son,  Richard,  waylaid  the  editor,  Benjamin  Russell, 
on  the  street,  and  struck  him  with  a  cane.1 

On  October  4,  1816,  Mr.  Sullivan  transferred  the 
title  of  his  Park  Street  estate  to  Lydia,  the  wife  of 
Thomas  Wren  Ward,  a  well-known  merchant;  and 
here  the  Wards  made  their  residence  for  many  years. 

Mr.  Ward  was  the  Boston  agent  of  Messrs.  Baring 

1  S.  A.  Drake,  Historic  Landmarks. 

59 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

Brothers  &  Company,  of  London.  The  following  cor- 
respondence explains  itself: 

3  Park  Street,  Boston,  September  16,  1852 

The  Hon.  Daniel  Webster, 

Dear  Sir,  Mr.  Thomas  Baring  will  dine  with  me  on 
Monday  next  at  ^ye  o'clock,  with  some  of  your  friends 
and  his;  and  we  shall  be  honored  and  obliged  by  the  pleas- 
ure of  your  company. 

I  am,  dear  Sir,  with  the  greatest  respect, 

Yours 

T.  W.  Ward 

Mr.  Webster  replied  as  follows: 

Green  Harbor,  Marshfield,  September  17,  1852 

It  would  give  me  sincere  pleasure,  my  dear  Mr.  Ward, 
to  dine  with  you  on  Monday,  and  to  meet  Mr.  Baring. 
.  .  .  But  I  am  stationed  here  by  my  Commander,  Doctor 
Jeffries,  in  the  recruiting  service;  and  he  bids  me  not  to 
leave  my  post  until  I  receive  his  official  permission. 
Always  very  truly  yours 

Daniel  Webster 

Mr.  Webster  did  visit  Boston  on  the  day  of  the 
Dinner,  and  he  appeared  at  Mr.  Ward's  table  during 
the  dessert  course,  remaining  but  a  short  time.  The 
next  morning  he  returned  to  Marshfield.  His  death 
occurred  there  October  24,  1852.  About  two  years 
before,  Mr.  Webster  had  written  from  Washington, 
D.C.,  to  his  farmer,  Porter  Wright,  directing  him  to 
send  Dr.  J.  C.  WTarren,  Mr.  Ward's  next-door  neigh- 

60 


NUMBER  THREE  PARK  STREET 

bor,  "six  selected  ears  of  our  corn.   If  you  have  any 
with  husks  on,  braid  them  up  handsomely."  * 

On  March  12, 1863,  Mrs.  Ward  conveyed  the  prop- 
erty to  Augustine  Heard,  of  Ipswich,  a  well-known 
merchant;  and  on  November  30,  1895,  the  premises 
were  sold  at  auction,  under  foreclosure  of  a  mortgage, 
to  John  Duff,  the  highest  bidder,  for  sixty-seven 
thousand  dollars.  The  latter 's  heirs  retained  the  es- 
tate until  May  31,  1916,  when  it  was  bought  by  the 
Warren  Institution  for  Savings.  The  dwelling-house, 
built  in  1804,  was  razed,  and  the  present  handsome 
structure  erected. 

1  The  Private  Correspondence  of  Daniel  Webster.  Edited  by  Fletcher 
Webster. 


NUMBER  FOUR  PARK  STREET 

One  of  the  first  owners  of  this  lot  was  Jonathan  Davis, 
who  bought  it  of  Peter  C.  Brooks,  November  10, 
1802,  for  $6692.53.  Next  came  Samuel  Ridgway 
Miller,  who  lived  there  from  1821  to  1840.  His  only 
daughter,  Mary  Jane,  became  the  wife  of  the  Hon- 
orable Josiah  Quincy,  the  younger,  who  made  his 
home  there  for  many  years.  The  property  remains  in 
the  possession  of  the  Quincy  family.  Mr.  Miller  was 
an  original  subscriber  to  the  stock  of  the  Suffolk  Na- 
tional Bank  in  1818.  He  was  reckoned  among  "the 
most  influential  Boston  men  of  the  day,"  and  was  en- 
gaged in  the  importation  of  British  dry  goods,  as  a 
member  of  the  firm  of  Gore,  Miller  &  Parker. 

Since  the  year  1880  the  firm  of  Houghton  Mifflin 
Company,  incorporated  in  1908,  has  occupied  as  ten- 
ant three  stories  of  this  building.  Here  are  the  head- 
quarters of  the  main  branches  of  its  business,  includ- 
ing the  Publishing,  Educational,  Advertising,  Edito- 
rial, and  Subscription  Departments.  The  Printing 
Department  remains,  as  for  many  years,  at  The  Riv- 
erside Press  in  Cambridge. 

For  many  years  the  "Atlantic  Monthly,"  most 
prominent  among  the  literary  periodicals  of  America, 
maintained  its  offices  here.  "Even  within  the  sub- 
stantial walls  of  Number  Four"  wrote  Professor 

62 


NUMBER  FOUR  PARK  STREET 

Bliss  Perry,  one  of  the  "Atlantic's"  former  editors, 
in  "Park  Street  Papers, "  "built  as  it  was  for  a  family 
mansion,  and  long  identified  with  a  widely  honored 
name,  the  magazine  used  to  flit  upstairs  and  down, 
like  a  restless  guest.  Mr.  Howells's  tiny  sanctum  was 
on  the  second  floor,  and  many  a  delighted  caller  re- 
members that  third-floor  back  room,  looking  out  upon 
the  Burying-Ground,  where  Mr.  Aldrich  was  wont  to 
mitigate  the  severity  of  his  position  with  an  Irish 
setter  and  a  pipe.  The  *  Atlantic'  loves  the  memory 
of  the  gentlemen  and  scholars,  and  men  of  letters,  who 
once  frequented  Park  Street.  It  was  more  happily 
housed  in  the  ancient  Quincy  mansion  than  in  any 
tall  office  building  of  Gath  or  Askalon." * 

J  John  Dryden,  Absalom  and  Achitophel.  1681, 


NUMBER  FIVE  PARK  STREET 

The  Site  of  the  Town  Pound 

This  lot  was  bought  by  John  Gore  in  September, 
1802.  The  grantor  was  Thomas  H.  Perkins,  and  the 
price  paid  was  $6360.  It  is  probable  that  Mr.  Gore 
built  the  house  which  was  soon  after  erected  on  the 
premises.  According  to  the  Boston  Directories,  he 
lived  there  from  1805  to  1816;  and  his  widow,  Mary 
Gore,  occupied  the  house  until  1826.  In  1843  the  es- 
tate became  the  property  of  Francis  C.  Gray,  whose 
residence  it  was  for  eleven  years. 

Francis  Calley  Gray  (1790-1856),  Harvard,  1809; 
LL.D.,  1841,  a  son  of  Lieutenant-Governor  William 
Gray,  was  a  native  of  Salem,  Massachusetts.  Soon 
after  leaving  college  he  accompanied  John  Quincy 
Adams  (then  Boylston  Professor  of  Rhetoric  and 
Oratory  at  Harvard,  and  afterward  President  of  the 
United  States)  on  his  mission  to  Russia,  in  the  capac- 
ity of  private  secretary.  Mr.  Gray  studied  law,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  Bar;  but  he  never  practised.  He 
was  described  as  a  Gentleman  and  Man  of  Letters; 
"an  elegant  and  accomplished  writer,  and  an  honored 
son  of  Harvard,  who  requited  his  Alma  Mater  for  her 
nurturing  care  by  his  literary  and  political  labors  and 
laurels.' '  He  was  much  engrossed  in  antiquarian  and 
historical  research.  Mr.  Gray  bequeathed  fifty  thou- 

64 


NUMBER  FIVE  PARK  STREET 

sand  dollars  for  the  establishment  and  maintenance 
of  a  Museum  of  Comparative  Zoology  at  Cambridge. 
He  also  left  the  College  a  collection  of  rare  engravings. 

The  estate  descended  to  his  nephew,  William  Gray, 
who  sold  it  in  February,  1857,  to  the  Honorable 
Josiah  Quincy,  Senior  (1772-1864),  who  lived  there 
several  years.  His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Abigail  Phillips,  was  a  woman  of  decided  character, 
who  had,  moreover,  very  positive  opinions  on  matters 
relating  to  hygiene  and  methods  of  promoting  bodily 
vigor.  It  is  said  that  when  her  son  was  hardly  more 
than  an  infant,  she  was  accustomed  to  have  him 
taken  from  his  bed  every  morning  in  all  seasons,  into 
a  basement  kitchen,  where  he  was  thrice  dipped  in  a 
tub  of  cold  water.1 

Mr.  Quincy  was  educated  at  Phillips  Academy, 
Andover,  and  at  Harvard  (A.B.,  1790;  LL.D.,  1824). 
He  served  as  a  member  of  Congress,  1805-13,  and  as 
Mayor  of  Boston,  1823-29.  During  his  administra- 
tion the  Fire  Department  was  reorganized,  and  effi- 
cient street-cleaning  methods  were  introduced.  The 
Quincy  Market  was  built  under  his  supervision.  Mr. 
Quincy  was  one  of  the  first  among  Boston  men  "to 
denounce  the  slave-holding  interest  as  a  dangerous 
and  rising  tyranny."  He  was  President  of  Harvard 
College  from  1829  to  1845,  and  wrote  a  History  of  the 
College.  His  innate  modesty  was  shown  by  the  fact 
that  his  own  name  hardly  appears  in  that  work. 

1  Mayors  of  Boston.  Issued  by  the  State  Street  Trust  Company,  1914. 

65 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

During  his  term  of  service  in  Congress,  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Federalist  Party,  he  was  a  consistent  oppo- 
nent of  the  measures  of  the  Administration;  and  his 
ready  wit  and  keen  satire  in  debate  were  sources  of 
annoyance  to  his  Democratic  fellow  members.  He 
was  a  lifelong  opposer  of  slavery;  and  during  the  Civil 
War,  at  the  age  of  ninety-one,  he  made  an  eloquent 
speech  in  support  of  the  Union.  During  political 
campaigns,  when  party  feeling  ran  high,  he  was  lam- 
pooned and  caricatured  by  his  adversaries.  In  one 
cartoon  he  was  styled  "Josiah  the  First,"  and  wore 
upon  his  breast  a  symbol  representing  crossed  cod- 
fishes, in  reference  to  his  unwavering  defence  of  the 
fisheries  of  New  England.  Mr.  Quincy  was  always  in- 
tensely patriotic.  He  was,  moreover,  foremost  in  pro- 
moting the  welfare  of  his  native  city;  and  was  indeed 
"a  great  public  character." 

James  Russell  Lowell  in  "My  Study  Windows," 
relates  an  anecdote  of  Mayor  Quincy,  which  he 
characterized  as  "quite  Roman  in  color."  The 
Mayor  was  once  arrested  on  a  malicious  charge  of 
fast  driving,  in  violation  of  a  City  ordinance.  He 
might  have  resisted;  but  instead  he  appeared  in 
court  and  paid  a  fine;  because  it  would  serve  as  a 
good  example  of  the  principle  that  "no  citizen  was 
above  the  law."  By  President  Quincy's  will,  which 
was  proved  August  29,  1864,  his  three  daughters, 
Eliza  Susan,  Abby  Phillips,  and  Maria  Sophia  Quincy, 
became  the  owners  of  the  estate.    His  library  was 


NUMBER  FIVE  PARK  STREET 

given  to  the  sons,  Josiah  and  Edmund,  with  the 
proviso  that  the  books  should  remain  in  the  Park 
Street  house  during  the  lifetime  of  his  daughters,  or 
of  any  one  of  them;  and,  further,  that  the  sons  should 
always  have  free  access  to  them.  Bibliophiles,  whose 
pleasure  it  is  to  delve  amid  the  musty  volumes  in 
Mr.  Goodspeed's  well-known  book-shop  in  the  base- 
ment of  the  former  Quincy  mansion,  may  perchance 
be  interested  to  view  the  old  kitchen  fireplace,  which 
remains  intact.  The  estate  is  still  in  the  possession  of 
the  Quincy  heirs. 

The  Honorable  Josiah  Quincy,  the  younger  (1802- 
82),  a  prominent  citizen  of  Boston  (Harvard,  1821), 
was  Mayor  of  the  City  from  1846  to  1848.  Salient 
features  of  his  administration  were  the  introduction 
of  water  from  Lake  Cochituate,  at  a  cost  of  five 
million  dollars;  and  the  reorganization  of  the  Police 
Department.  It  was  said  of  Mr.  Quincy  that  "he 
wrote  his  name  in  water;  yet  it  will  last  forever. 
The  people  of  Boston  have  never  found  him  dry, 
and  he  has  taken  care  that  they  shall  never  be  so." 
His  knowledge  of  municipal  affairs  was  said  to  be 
very  thorough;  and  during  his  term  of  office  he  dis- 
played much  of  the  zeal  and  ability  which  were  char- 
acteristic of  his  father,  the  "Great  Mayor." 

The  Honorable  Josiah  Quincy,  third  of  the  name, 
was  born  at  Quincy  in  1859,  and  graduated  at  Har- 
vard in  1880.  He  was  a  prominent  member  of  the 
Democratic  Party,  and  held  various  public  offices, 

67 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

having  served  as  First  Assistant  Secretary  of  State 
under  President  Cleveland.  Mr.  Quincy  was  elected 
Mayor  of  Boston  in  1895,  and  served  four  years. 
An  important  event  of  his  administration  was  the 
erection  of  the  South  Union  Railway  Station.  He 
was  especially  interested  in  the  system  of  baths, 
gymnasia,  playgrounds,  and  other  progressive  meas- 
ures for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  In  later  years  he 
served  as  a  member  of  the  Boston  Transit  Com- 
mission. His  death  occurred  in  1919. 


NUMBER  SIX  PARK  STREET 

This  lot  was  sold  by  the  Town,  in  1801,  to  Thomas 
Handasyd  Perkins,  who  resold  it  in  the  following 
year  to  John  Gore.  The  latter  built  thereon  a  brick 
dwelling,  and  the  property  remained  in  the  posses- 
sion of  his  descendants  for  many  years.  Francis 
Calley  Gray  became  the  owner  of  the  estate  in  1843; 
and  the  next  year  a  portion  of  the  lot  was  bought  by 
Dr.  John  C.  Warren,  Senior.  He  built  a  house,  nine- 
teen feet  wide,  on  this  land,  for  his  son,  Dr.  J.  Mason 
Warren,  who  occupied  it,  with  his  family,  in  1845. 
Here  they  made  their  home  until  1857,  when  they 
removed  to  Number  Two  Park  Street.  This  latter 
house  had  been  the  residence  of  the  elder  physician 
for  more  than  half  a  century.  As  Dr.  J.  M.  W7arren 
had  then  five  children,  "this  removal  greatly  in- 
creased his  comfort;  and  in  truth  the  need  of  more 
roomy  quarters  had  become  imperative.  For  the 
dwelling  at  Number  Six,  although  cheerful  and  con- 
venient both  within  and  without,  was  but  a  little 
slice  of  a  house  at  best."  This  house  was  bequeathed 
by  Dr.  J.  C.  Warren,  Senior,  to  his  son,  James  Sul- 
livan Warren  (Harvard,  1832),  who  lived  there  for 
about  ten  years;  and  his  widow  continued  to  occupy 
it  until  1898. 
John  Warren,  M.D.  (1753-1815),  Harvard,  1771, 

69 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

was  Surgeon  to  the  military  hospitals  of  Boston 
during  the  Revolutionary  War;  and  Professor  of 
Anatomy  and  Surgery  at  Harvard  for  thirty-three 
years.  He  was  a  younger  brother  of  Joseph  War- 
ren, the  eminent  physician,  Major-General,  and  pa- 
triot, who  was  killed  at  Bunker  Hill,  at  the  age  of 
thirty-four.  John  Warren  was  settled  at  that  time 
in  Salem,  where  he  heard  the  sound  of  the  cannon, 
and  saw  the  smoke  and  flames  of  the  Charlestown 
conflagration  on  June  17,  1775.  Knowing  well  the 
courage  and  boldness  of  his  brother,  and  that  he 
would  not  hesitate  to  expose  his  life  in  the  service 
of  his  country,  John  Warren  hastened  on  foot  toward 
the  battle-field,  anxiously  seeking  tidings  of  Joseph. 
Pressing  forward  in  haste,  when  near  the  scene  of 
action  he  encountered  a  sentinel,  whom  he  attempted 
to  pass;  and  in  so  doing  he  received  a  bayonet  wound, 
whereof  he  carried  the  scar  through  life.  Both  Jo- 
seph and  John  Warren  were  born  at  the  Warren 
homestead  farm  in  Roxbury.  A  strong  attachment 
existed  between  the  brothers.  "Joseph's  twelve 
years  of  seniority,  while  it  gave  him  the  advan- 
tage of  a  large  experience,  was  not  sufficient  to  repel 
familiarity;  neither  was  his  disposition  likely  to  do 
so.  The  brothers,  warm-hearted,  ardent,  enthusi- 
astic, and  of  attractive  manners,  were  closely  united 
by  patriotic,  as  well  as  by  professional  sympathies."  l 
Dr.  John  Collins  Warren,  Senior  (1778-1856),  a 

1  Edward  Warren,  The  Life  of  John  Warren,  M.D. 

70 


NUMBER  SIX  PARK  STREET 

son  of  the  preceding,  was  for  seven  years  a  student  at 
the  Boston  Public  Latin  School,  and  graduated  at 
Harvard  in  1797.  After  devoting  three  years  to 
medical  studies  abroad,  chiefly  in  London,  Paris, 
and  Edinburgh,  he  returned  home,  and  in  1809  was 
appointed  Adjunct  Professor  of  Anatomy  in  the 
Harvard  Medical  School.  In  1815  he  succeeded  his 
father  as  Hersey  Professor  of  Anatomy  and  Surgery; 
retaining  the  position  until  1847.  "As  a  surgeon," 
wrote  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes,  "Dr.  Warren  was  supreme 
among  his  fellows,  and  deservedly  so.  He  performed 
a  great  number  of  difficult  operations;  always  de- 
liberate, always  cool;  with  a  grim  smile  in  sudden 
emergencies,  where  weaker  men  would  have  looked 
perplexed,  and  wiped  their  foreheads.  He  had  the 
stuff  in  him,  which  carried  his  uncle,  Joseph  War- 
ren, to  Bunker  Hill,  and  left  him  there,  slain  among 
the  last  in  retreat."  Dr.  Warren  was  for  seventeen 
years  a  warden  of  Saint  Paul's  Church,  Boston. 

Jonathan  Mason  Warren,  son  of  Dr.  John  Collins 
Warren,  was  born  at  Boston,  February  5,  1811,  in 
the  house,  Number  Two  Park  Street,  and  died  there, 
August  19,  1867.  He  was  for  a  short  time  a  member 
of  the  Harvard  Class  of  1830;  but  was  obliged  to 
leave  college  during  the  Sophomore  year  owing  to 
ill  health.  He  graduated  from  the  Medical  School  in 
1832,  and  received  the  honorary  degree  of  Master  of 
Arts  in  1844.  After  more  than  three  years'  study  in 
Europe,  Dr.  Warren,  following  his  father's  example, 

71 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

entered  upon  practice  in  his  native  city.  He  married, 
April  30,  1839,  Anna  Caspar,  the  youngest  daugh- 
ter of  Benjamin  W.  Crowninshield,  a  member  of 
Congress  and  a  former  Secretary  of  the  United 
States  Navy.  Dr.  Warren  was  elected  a  Visiting 
Surgeon  of  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  in 
1848;  and  in  October  of  that  year  he  "assisted  his 
father  in  the  operation  which  was  destined  to  be 
known  as  the  first  public  demonstration  of  surgical 
anaesthesia."  "Dr.  Warren,"  wrote  his  biographer, 
"was  equally  eminent  as  surgeon  and  physician;  a 
union  seldom  encountered;  since  few  are  so  consti- 
tuted that  the  qualities  needed  for  success  in  the  one 
calling  do  not  prevent,  in  a  certain  degree,  distinction 
in  the  other." 

John  Collins  Warren  (A.B.,  Harvard,  1863;  M.D., 
1866;  LL.D.,  1906)  was  born  in  Pemberton  Square, 
Boston,  May  4,  1842.  His  early  education  was  re- 
ceived at  the  Public  Latin  School,  and  at  Epes  S. 
Dixwell's  private  school  in  Boston.  After  leaving 
the  Medical  College,  he  devoted  three  years  to  the 
study  of  surgery  in  Vienna,  Berlin,  and  Paris.  Re- 
turning, he  became  Instructor  in  Surgery  at  Har- 
vard; Assistant  Prof essor,  1882;  Associate  Professor, 
1887;  Professor  of  Surgery,  1893;  Moseley  Professor 
of  Surgery,  1899;  Professor  Emeritus,  1907.  He  has 
been  President  of  the  American  Surgical  Association, 
1896;  Harvard  Overseer,  1908-14.  Dr.  Warren  was 
largely  instrumental  in  securing  liberal  donations 

72 


NUMBER  SIX  PARK  STREET 

for  the  erection  of  the  present  magnificent  Harvard 
Medical  School  Buildings.  He  is  the  author  of 
several  works  on  Surgery.  Dr.  Warren  married, 
May  27,  1873,  Miss  Amy  Shaw,  of  Boston.  John 
Warren,  his  elder  son  (Harvard,  A.B.,  1896;  M.D., 
1900),  served  as  Demonstrator  of  Anatomy  1901- 
08;  and  since  the  latter  date  he  has  been  Associate 
Professor  of  Anatomy,  and  University  Marshal  since 
1911.  Joseph  Warren,  the  younger  son  (Harvard, 
1897;  LL.B.,  1900),  held  the  office  of  Secretary  to 
the  Corporation,  1907-10;  Instructor  in  the  Law 
School,  1909-13.  He  is  at  this  time  Bemis  Professor 
of  Law  in  the  University. 

In  the  upper  portion  of  the  house,  at  Number  Six 
Park  Street,  are  the  apartments  of  the  Mayflower 
Club,  which  was  founded  by  Mrs.  Charles  D.  Ho- 
mans  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Oliver  W.  Peabody.  The 
first  President  was  Mrs.  J.  Elliot  Cabot.  The  need 
of  a  rendezvous  for  ladies  had  long  been  felt;  and  this 
was  the  pioneer  Women's  Club  of  this  region.  At 
the  start  the  Club  was  fortunate  in  having  rooms 
in  the  John  Amory  Lowell  house  at  Number  Seven 
Park  Street,  with  its  charming  view  of  the  Common 
and  of  the  country  beyond  from  its  front  windows. 
The  organization  was  named  after  the  flower,  and 
not  after  the  Pilgrims'  vessel.  Its  rooms  were  opened 
on  Mayflower  Day,  May  1,  1893.  At  first  the  mem- 
bership was  limited  to  three  hundred.  The  object  of 
the  Club  was  solely  to  provide  comfort  and  rest  for 

73 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

its  members.  It  was  a  social  Club  for  women,  where 
mental  improvement  was  ignored,  and  no  petitions 
for  objects  of  charity  or  philanthropy  were  allowed. 
As  the  membership  increased,  more  spacious  quar- 
ters were  needed,  and  when,  in  1896,  the  house  was 
bought  by  the  Union  Club,  the  Mayflower  members 
leased  apartments  in  "the  Tudor,"  on  the  corner  of 
Beacon  and  Joy  Streets.  Later  they  removed  to 
their  present  home  at  Number  Six  Park  Street,  which 
was  owned  at  that  time  by  Mrs.  J.  Sullivan  Warren. 
For  many  years  the  Club  has  been  under  the  able 
management  of  Miss  Katharine  P.  Loring,  as  Presi- 
dent, 


<     NUMBER  SEVEN  PARK  STREET 

In  August,  1896,  the  trustees  of  the  Union  Club 
bought  the  house  numbered  Seven  Park  Street,  ad- 
joining their  Club  House.  The  land  whereon  this 
building  stands  was  sold  by  the  town  agents,  March 
24,  1801,  to  Thomas  Handasyd  Perkins,  a  prominent 
merchant  and  humanitarian.  For  half  a  century  he 
maintained  a  fine  estate  in  Brookline,  where,  under 
the  supervision  of  foreign  expert  gardeners,  he  took 
great  interest  in  the  cultivation  of  choice  plants, 
fruits,  and  flowers.  Mr.  Perkins  was  the  well-known 
founder  of  the  Massachusetts  School  for  the  Blind,  or 
Perkins  Institution.  He  retained  the  ownership  of  the 
Park  Street  lot  for  somewhat  over  a  year,  and  sold 
it  in  September,  1802,  to  John  Gore,  a  Boston  mer- 
chant. He  was  of  the  sixth  generation  from  the  emi- 
grant, of  the  same  name,  who  settled  at  Roxbury  in 
1635,  and  served  for  many  years  as  Clerk  of  the  Writs. 
His  grandfather,  John,  of  the  fourth  generation,  was 
a  merchant  and  Loyalist  refugee,  who  accompanied 
the  British  troops  to  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia,  in  March, 
1776.  His  citizenship  was  restored  by  an  Act  of  the 
General  Court  in  1787.  He  was  the  father  of  thirteen 
children,  including  Governor  Christopher  Gore.  In  a 
Funeral  Sermon  preached  by  the  Reverend  William 
Cooper,  pastor  of  Brattle  Street  Church,  Mr.  Gore, 
the  refugee,  was  described  as  "an  ingenious  and  reli- 

75 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

gious  gentleman;  an  Ornament  to  his  Country,  and 
to  the  College."  John  Gore,  the  owner  of  the  Park 
Street  estate*  was  prominent  in  financial  affairs.  He 
was  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  New  England 
National  Bank,  of  Boston,  in  1813.  His  only  daugh- 
ter, Louisa,  married  Horatio  Greenough,  the  eminent 
sculptor,  and  pioneer  of  the  American  artists'  colony 
in  Italy. 

In  August,  1811,  Mr.  Gore  sold  the  property,  which 
included  a  brick  stable,  to  Artemas  Ward,  Esq.  (1762- 
1847),  of  Boston,  a  son  and  namesake  of  the  Revolu- 
tionary General,  and  a  prominent  jurist.  He  was  a 
Harvard  graduate  of  1783;  LL.D.,  1842;  member  of 
Congress;  and  Chief  Justice  of  the  Massachusetts 
Court  of  Common  Pleas.  Mr.  Ward  began  practice 
as  a  lawyer  about  the  year  1787,  at  the  time  of 
Shays 's  Rebellion,  during  an  unsettled  period,  when 
the  lawyers  were  accustomed  to  carry  pistols  in  their 
pockets  while  journeying  on  their  circuits.1  He  was 
occupying  this  house  in  1818;  for  in  September  of  that 
year  the  Selectmen  granted  him  permission  to  have  a 
well  dug  in  front  of  his  house,  and  to  place  a  pump 
over  it,  "on  condition  that  the  pump  be  well  finished 
and  painted,  and  that  there  be  a  good  shoe  to  the 
same." 

In  October,  1848,  the  executors  of  Justice  Ward's 
will  conveyed  the  premises  to  Henry  Joseph  Gardner, 
Esq.  (1819-92),  a  native  of  Dorchester.  A.M.,  1851; 

1  Our  First  Men.  1846. 

76 


NUMBER  SEVEN  PARK  STREET 

LL.D.,  Harvard,  1855.  He  was  educated  at  private 
schools  in  Boston,  and  at  Phillips  Exeter  Academy. 
He  then  joined  the  Class  of  1838  at  Bowdoin  College, 
but  did  not  graduate.  Mr.  Gardner  became  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  of  Denny,  Rice  &  Gardner,  dry-goods 
merchants,  and  remained  therein  until  1876,  when  he 
formed  a  partnership  with  George  Bacon,  who  dealt 
in  leather  and  hides.  In  1887  he  represented  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company,  as  its 
resident  agent  in  Boston. 

During  his  mercantile  career  he  became  interested 
in  municipal  affairs,  and  served  four  years  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Common  Council,  and  later  in  the  State 
Legislature.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  Constitu- 
tional Convention  in  1853,  and  Governor  of  Massa- 
chusetts for  three  years  (1855-57). 

Mr.  Gardner  was  the  candidate  of  the  Know- 
Nothing  Party,  whose  principal  doctrine  was  ex- 
pressed by  the  phrase  "America  for  the  Americans." 
Its  chief  aim  was  the  exclusion  of  foreigners  from 
all  public  offices. 

This  party  was  likened  to  a  vast  secret  society, 
with  branches  in  every  part  of  the  Union.  In  many 
places  lodges  were  instituted,  with  passwords  and 
mysterious  ceremonies.  Mr.  Gardner  was  elected 
with  a  plurality  of  more  than  fifty  thousand  votes 
over  the  Honorable  Emory  Washburn,  his  Whig 
predecessor  as  Governor. 

Next  in  line  of  the  distinguished  owners  and  oc- 

77 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

cupants  of  this  estate  was  John  Amory  Lowell,  Esq. 
(1798-1881),  Harvard,  1815;  LL.D.,  1851;  a  success- 
ful merchant,  who  was  connected  with  many  phil- 
anthropic enterprises.  He  was  also  a  Fellow  of  the 
American  Academy,  and  a  member  of  the  Linnsean 
Society  of  London.  By  the  will  of  the  founder  of  the 
Lowell  Institute,  Mr.  Lowell  was  appointed  sole 
trustee  of  that  Institution.  The  third  codicil  of  his 
own  will  gave  to  his  wife  the  right  to  occupy  the  Park 
Street  house  during  her  life,  "free  of  rent  and  taxes." 
Finally,  as  before  mentioned,  the  estate  was  bought 
by  the  Union  Club  in  August,  1896,  and  reconstructed 
for  the  use  of  its  members.  A  portion  of  the  building 
was  set  apart  for  ladies.  "Oh!"  wrote  Miss  Susan 
Hale  in  one  of  her  "Letters,"  in  February,  1898, 
"The  Union  Club,  you  know,  has  a  department  for 
ladies;  to  wit,  in  the  old  Mayflower  Rooms.  It  has 
been  beautifully  done  over,  and  is  a  much  more 
charming  place  for  a  meal  than  our  Mayflower.  I 
lunched  there  several  times.  They  have  a  Chef,  and 
good  food.  The  Thorndike  also  has  a  Chef  from  Del- 
monico's ;  and  all  the  chops  have  little  tufts  on  top  of 
them,  and  layers  of  peppers  beneath.  You  would  n't 
know  a  lamb,  if  you  met  him  thus  disguised;  but  the 
result  is  good! "  Again,  writing  from  Weimar  in  1882, 
she  described  the  German  beds  as  quite  comfortable 
on  top,  but  very  breezy  underneath,  "where  every 
blast  of  heaven  howls  and  whistles  all  night,  as  they 
do  around  Park  Street  corner!" 


THE  UNION  CLUB  HOUSE 

The  house  numbered  eight  on  Park  Street  is  on  the 
site  of  the  Bridewell.  This  estate  was  owned  suc- 
cessively by  Thomas  Amory,  Dr.  John  Jeffries,  Wil- 
liam Payne,  John  Gore,  and  Jonathan  Amory,  Junior. 
It  was  bought  by  the  last  named  in  June,  1811,  and  he 
lived  there  until  1828.  In  October,  1836,  the  Hon- 
orable Abbott  Lawrence  became  its  owner,  and  he 
occupied  it  until  his  death  in  1855.  Mr.  Lawrence 
was  a  native  of  Groton,  Massachusetts.  At  an  early 
age  he  served  as  an  apprentice  in  the  store  of  his 
brother  Amos,  at  Number  Thirty-One  Cornhill  (now 
a  part  of  Washington  Street),  Boston.  On  attaining 
his  majority  the  brothers  formed  a  partnership  under 
the  firm  name  of  A.  &  A.  Lawrence.  In  1834  Mr. 
Lawrence  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Twenty-Sixth 
Congress,  and  served  two  years.  In  1849  he  was  ap- 
pointed U.S.  Minister  to  England,  and  retained  the 
position  until  the  autumn  of  1852,  when  he  returned 
to  Boston.  By  his  will  he  bequeathed  "the  mansion- 
house  estate  situated  in  Park  Street,  Boston,"  to  his 
wife,  Katharine  Bigelow  Lawrence,  who  continued 
to  reside  there  for  several  years. 

In  December,  1863,  the  trustees  of  Mr.  Lawrence's 
estate  leased  the  property  to  the  Union  Club  of  Bos- 
ton; and  the  latter  became  the  owner  thereof,  Febru- 

79 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

ary  1, 1868.  The  Union  Club  was  founded  in  the  year 
1863,  "For  the  encouragement  of  patriotic  sentiment 
and  opinion."  A  condition  of  membership  was  "un- 
qualified loyalty  to  the  Constitution  and  Union  of  the 
United  States;  and  unwavering  support  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  in  its  efforts  for  the  suppression  of 
the  Rebellion.,, 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

Number  Nine  Park  Street 

The  lots  on  the  present  Park  Street,  taken  originally 
from  the  Common,  and  previously  covered  by  public 
buildings,  were  sold  under  certain  conditions,  namely : 
that  all  buildings  erected  thereon  should  be  uniform 
in  style  of  construction;  that  the  material  employed 
should  be  brick  or  stone;  and  that  the  roofs  should  be 
of  slate  or  tiles,  or  of  such  other  components  as  might 
best  resist  fire.  Accordingly,  in  March,  1801,  the 
agents  for  the  Town,  previously  mentioned,  sold  at 
public  auction  to  Thomas  Amory,  Esq.,  merchant, 
of  Boston,  the  corner  lot,  measuring  one  hundred 
and  fifty  feet  on  Beacon  Street,  and  sixty -six  feet  on 
Park  Street.  On  this  lot,  where  the  Almshouse  had 
formerly  stood,  Mr.  Amory  built  in  1804  the  large 
brick  mansion  of  the  Georgian  style,  which  is  still 
standing  (although  much  altered  for  business  pur- 
poses) at  the  head  of  Park  Street.  According  to  the 
Boston  Directory  of  the  year  last  mentioned,  he  was 
at  that  time  the  only  resident  on  that  thoroughfare; 
and  the  new  house  was  called  "Amory's  Folly"  on 
account  of  its  unusual  size  and  pretentiousness. 
Thomas  Amory  (1762-1823)  was  a  partner  in  busi- 
ness with  his  brother  John,  and  at  one  time  had 
amassed  a  considerable  fortune.    Financial  losses, 

81 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

however,  obliged  him  to  dispose  of  his  new  mansion, 
which  was  later  enlarged,  and  divided  into  four 
dwellings,  whereof  two  had  entrances  on  Beacon 
Street.   The  other  two  fronted  on  Park  Street. 

The  corner  dwelling  was  occupied  as  early  as  1806 
by  Mrs.  Catherine  Carter,  who  there  maintained  a 
fashionable  boarding-house,  which  became  a  popular 
resort  for  visitors  from  abroad.  We  quote  from  a 
letter  of  this  period:  "Mrs.  Carter  rejects  twenty 
or  thirty  strangers  a  day;  yet  still  keeps  the  mod- 
erate number  of  sixty  in  her  family.  After  the 
warmth  of  the  day  is  over,  we  form  animated  groups. 
We  had  quite  a  romantic  one  last  evening,  sitting  on 
the  grass  by  moon-light,  with  the  accompaniment  of 
a  guitar  and  singing."  Mrs.  Carter  afterward  re- 
moved to  Howard  Street,  where  she  kept  a  large, 
four-storied  boarding-house,  which  was  frequented 
by  many  people  of  quality. 

At  a  Selectmen's  meeting,  August  15,  1804,  Mr. 
Thomas  Amory  was  granted  permission  to  build  a 
range  of  wine  and  coal  vaults,  connected  with  his 
house,  by  forming  brick  arches  under  Beacon  Street. 
These  vaults,  which  are  quite  extensive,  still  exist. 

In  January,  1807,  Mr.  Amory  sold  this  dwelling, 
with  the  land,  "and  all  the  title  to  the  wine  and  coal 
vaults,"  to  the  Honorable  Samuel  Dexter  (third  of 
the  name),  an  eminent  jurist,  statesman,  and  promi- 
nent Federalist,  who  served  as  Secretary  of  War 
and  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  in  the  Cabinet  of 

82 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

President  John  Adams.  Before  settling  in  Boston, 
Mr.  Dexter  owned  and  occupied  a  fine  estate  in 
Charlestown,  where  he  maintained  an  attractive 
garden,  with  a  greenhouse,  fruit  and  ornamental 
trees.  He  was  described  by  the  Honorable  Fisher 
Ames  as  "an  Ajax  at  the  Bar;  and  a  gentleman  of 
varied  and  liberal  acquirements,  and  very  distin- 
guished as  a  lawyer."  In  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion before  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  he 
always  attracted  an  audience  consisting  of  the 
"beauty,  taste,  and  learning  of  the  City."  Lucius 
Manlius  Sargent,  in  his  "Reminiscences  of  Samuel 
Dexter,"  1857,  wrote  that  this  Commonwealth  had 
never  produced  a  man  of  more  extraordinary  intel- 
lectual powers.  And  yet,  even  then,  a  generation  was 
springing  up,  who,  upon  mention  of  his  name,  might 
be  pardoned  for  enquiring,  "Who  was  Samuel  Dex- 
ter?" Such  is  fame.  Judge  Joseph  Story,  of  the  Su- 
preme Court,  in  an  address  delivered  May  15,  1816, 
spoke  of  Mr.  Dexter  as  a  steadfast  friend  of  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  United  States,  and  a  patriot  in  the 
purest  sense  of  the  term.  Mr.  Dexter 's  wife  was 
Katherine,  daughter  of  William  and  Temperance 
(Grant)  Gordon,  of  Charlestown. 

In  October,  1831,  Mrs.  Katherine  Dexter,  widow, 
sold  the  dwelling-house,  which  was  her  portion  of  the 
Amory  estate,  to  Richard  Cobb,  Esq.,  who  occupied 
it  for  several  years. 

Matthias  Plant  Sawyer,  of  Portland,  Maine,  be- 

83 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

came  the  owner  of  the  Dexter  house  in  August,  1836, 
paying  Mr.  Cobb  thirty  thousand  dollars  therefor. 
He  lived  there  for  about  nine  years,  and  meanwhile 
was  engaged  in  business,  acquiring  a  handsome  for- 
tune. Mr.  Sawyer  never  married;  but  had  an  adopted 
daughter,  Lydia  N.  Osgood,  of  Newburyport,  who 
became  the  wife  of  Curtis  B.  Raymond.  They  were 
married  in  New  York,  March  29,  1849.  By  his  will, 
dated  April  5,  1853,  he  bequeathed  to  this  adopted 
daughter  the  use  or  rent  of  his  mansion-house  on  the 
corner  of  Beacon  and  Park  Streets,  during  her  nat- 
ural life,  with  the  right  to  dispose  of  the  same  at  her 
discretion;  together  with  all  the  silverware,  books, 
pictures,  musical  instruments,  wines,  and  furniture. 
The  portion  of  the  edifice  fronting  on  Beacon  Street 
is  still  known  as  the  Raymond  Building. 

The  foregoing  items  have  been  derived  chiefly 
from  the  Probate  Records.  As  Dr.  Holmes  wrote  in 
the  "Poet  at  the  Breakfast-Table,"  "the  Registry  of 
Deeds  and  the  Probate  Office  show  us  the  same  old 
folios,  where  we  can  read  our  grandfather's  title  to 
his  estate  (if  we  had  a  grandfather,  and  he  happened 
to  own  anything)  and  see  how  many  pots  and  kettles 
there  were  in  his  kitchen,  by  the  Inventory  of  his 
estate." 

Curtis  Burritt  Raymond  (1816-92)  was  a  native 
of  Sherburne,  Chenango  County,  New  York.  He  was 
educated  at  the  Polytechnic  Institute  at  Chitten- 
ango,  in  Madison  County,  and  at  Columbia  College. 

84 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

After  a  period  of  European  travel,  he  became  a 
resident  of  Boston  about  the  year  1844,  and  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  of  Rice,  Hall  &  Raymond,  dry  goods, 
at  54  Milk  Street.  In  the  Directory  of  1859  his  name 
appears  as  President  of  Brady's  Bend  Iron  Company, 
30  City  Exchange.  Mr.  Raymond  was  prominent  in 
military  circles,  and  attained  the  rank  of  Major. 
He  was  well  versed  in  the  science  of  tactics,  and  re- 
vised Spencer's  Manual  for  the  First  Corps  of  Ca- 
dets. This  Manual,  as  revised  by  him,  was  after- 
ward adopted  for  use  in  the  Russian  Army. 

Major  Raymond  also  drilled  several  regiments  of 
volunteers  at  the  camp  in  Lynnfield  early  in  the 
Civil  War.  An  intimate  friend  described  him  as 
having  "a  wonderful  memory,  a  superior  mind  and 
talents  of  a  high  order."  He  was  also  an  enthusiastic 
explorer,  and  lover  of  the  White  Mountains.  In  1863 
he  first  blazed  the  way  along  the  trail  which  leaves 
the  carriage-road  at  the  second  mile-post,  on  the 
Glen  side  of  Mount  Washington,  and  leads  upward 
to  the  so-called  Snow  Arch.  This  trail  was  improved 
by  him  in  1891,  and  is  known  as  the  Raymond  Path. 

In  1884  or  thereabout  Lydia  N.  Raymond  leased 
her  homestead  to  John  G.  Mitchell,  and  soon  after- 
ward the  entire  building  was  devoted  to  mercantile 
uses. 

The  dwelling  adjacent  to  and  below  the  Dexter 
house,  fronting  on  Park  Street,  and  forming  a  part 
of  the  original  Amory  mansion,  was  owned  succes- 

85 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

sively  by  Dr.  John  Jeffries,  William  Payne,  the 
Honorable  Christopher  Gore,  Andrew  Ritchie,  Har- 
rison Gray  Otis,  and  George  Ticknor.  Dr.  Jeffries 
bought  this  house  from  Mr.  Thomas  Amory  in  April, 
1806,  for  forty  thousand  dollars,  and  retained  pos- 
session of  it  for  one  year  only. 

He  was  of  a  family  which  has  been  represented  in 
Boston  for  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  years;  a 
Harvard  graduate  of  1763;  M.D.,  Aberdeen  Uni- 
versity, 1769;  and  a  prominent  Loyalist  practitioner 
in  Boston.  Dr.  Jeffries  assisted  in  caring  for  the 
British  wounded  after  the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill; 
and  he  it  was  who  identified  the  body  of  General 
Joseph  Warren.  He  accompanied  the  King's  troops 
to  Halifax  in  March,  1776,  and  was  made  Surgeon- 
General  of  his  Majesty's  forces  in  North  America. 
During  the  later  years  of  the  Revolution  he  made  his 
home  in  London,  and  in  1785  he  acquired  distinction 
by  accompanying  the  French  aeronaut,  Frangois 
Blanchard,  in  a  balloon,  on  the  pioneer  aerial  flight 
across  the  English  Channel.  In  order  to  prevent  a 
descent  into  the  sea,  they  were  obliged  to  throw 
overboard  considerable  ballast,  including  a  large 
portion  of  their  clothing  and  supplies.  In  1790  he  re- 
turned to  Boston,  where  he  acquired  a  large  practice. 
We  have  the  testimony  of  Dr.  O.  W.  Holmes  that 
among  the  old  ladies  of  the  town  Dr.  Jeffries  was 
known  as  "Jeffers,"  which  was  doubtless  a  term  of 
endearment.    It  was  said  that  during  the  fifty-six 

86 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

years  of  his  professional  career,  he  seldom  enjoyed 
an  uninterrupted  meal  in  his  own  house.  He  was  an 
inveterate  foe  to  quackery  in  any  form,  and  "never 
from  any  motive  allowed  to  pass,  without  remon- 
strance, fulsome  praise  of  the  fashionable  charlatan 
of  the  day." 

Dr.  Jeffries  was  succeeded  in  the  ownership  of  the 
estate  by  William  Payne,  Esq.,  merchant,  of  Bos- 
ton. As  a  young  man  he  was  engaged  in  the  insur- 
ance business,  in  partnership  with  his  father,  Edward 
Payne.  Their  office  was  on  Long  Wharf.  Later  he 
formed  a  partnership  with  Thomas  C.  Amory  "in 
the  commission  line."  After  this  he  wrote:  "I 
bought  and  sold  public  securities,  and  like  a  simple- 
ton gave  up  the  insurance  business,  and  bought  large 
tracts  of  land  in  the  State  of  Georgia." 

The  Honorable  Christopher  Gore  was  the  next 
proprietor  of  this  portion  of  the  Amory  mansion, 
which  he  occupied  while  serving  as  Governor  in 
1808-09.  He  was  one  of  a  group  of  distinguished  con- 
temporary lawyers,  which  included  Theophilus  Par- 
sons, Samuel  Dexter,  James  Sullivan,  Fisher  Ames, 
and  Harrison  Gray  Otis.  His  failure  of  reelection, 
after  one  year's  service,  was  attributed  to  the  poli- 
tical excitement  and  bitter  party  contentions  of  the 
day,  and  not  to  any  lack  of  popular  appreciation. 
"Few  men,"  it  was  said  of  him,  "were  more  power- 
ful in  argument  or  more  eloquent  in  debate."  Gov- 
ernor Gore  was  afterward  a  member  of  the  United 

87  ' 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

States  Senate.  His  estate  at  Waltham  was  one  of  the 
most  pretentious  in  New  England,  and  its  fine  old 
mansion  is  still  to  be  seen  there.  He  was  accustomed 
to  drive  about  in  an  orange-colored  coach,  with 
liveried  coachman,  footman,  and  outriders;  a  spec- 
tacle which  must  have  been  sensational  in  its  effect 
upon  the  minds  of  the  plain  country  people  there- 
about. 

While  serving  in  the  National  Congress,  he  formed 
a  close  and  enduring  friendship  with  the  Honorable 
Jeremiah  Mason,  one  of  the  most  prominent  states- 
men and  lawyers  in  the  country.  Mr.  Mason  once 
referred  to  Mr.  Gore  as  having  few  superiors  in 
Washington  or  anywhere  else. 

Andrew  Ritchie  (Harvard,  1802),  who  bought  the 
Jeffries  house  in  1816,  was  a  practising  lawyer,  of 
Boston,  and  a  well-known  authority  on  fine  editions 
of  the  classics.  He  delivered  the  oration  at  the 
municipal  exercises  on  Independence  Day,  1808. 

The  Honorable  Harrison  Gray  Otis  (1782-1862) 
was  the  next  owner.  "All  three  of  his  names/'  wrote 
his  biographer,  "stood  for  respectability  and  long- 
established  position  in  the  Province  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay.  .  .  .  He  came  of  pure  English  stock, 
strengthened  by  five  generations  in  America,  and 
refined  by  three  generations  of  public  service."  Mr. 
Otis  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  Federalist  Party, 
and  a  distinguished  public  speaker.  He  served  in 
both  Houses  of  Congress,  and  as  Mayor  of  Boston 

88 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

for  two  years.  "Old  Faneuil  Hall,"  said  one  of  his 
admirers,  "will  ever  be  memorable  as  the  forum, 
whence  with  a  voice  of  silvery  sweetness,  the  flashes 
of  wit  and  stirring  eloquence  of  the  Boston  Cicero 
captivated  the  people." 

The  mother  of  Mr.  Otis  was  the  only  daughter 
of  Harrison  Gray,  Loyalist,  and  Treasurer  of  the 
Province.  The  large  dwelling  at  number  45  Beacon 
Street,  which  Mr.  Otis  first  occupied  in  1807,  was 
afterward  bought  by  Edward  Austin,  Esq.,  who  re- 
sided there  for  fifty  years. 

In  July,  1830,  the  easterly  portion  of  the  Amory 
house  came  into  the  possession  of  George  Ticknor 
(1791-1871),  the  well-known  author  of  the  "History 
of  Spanish  Literature,"  who  made  his  home  there  for 
forty-one  years.  "The  situation,  the  proportions  and 
the  taste  of  this  residence,"  in  the  words  of  his 
biographer,  "sufficed  for  all  the  needs  of  domestic 
and  social  hours.  His  new  house  stood  at  the  most 
attractive  point  of  the  margin  of  the  Common,  at  the 
top  of  the  slope,  looking  down  the  avenue  of  elms  of 
the  finest  of  its  malls."  * 

His  valuable  books  were  kept  in  a  large,  attractive 
room,  with  three  balconied  windows,  on  the  second 
floor. 

Mr.  Ticknor  was  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege in  1807,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Bar  in  1813. 
He  served  as  Professor  of  Modern  Languages  and 

1  George  S.  Hillard,  Life,  Letters  and  Journals  of  George  Ticknor. 

89 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

Literature  at  Harvard  for  sixteen  years,  and  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  Boston  Public  Library. 
He  was  also  Chairman  of  its  Board  of  Trustees  in 
1864-66. 

By  his  will  Mr.  Ticknor  bequeathed  to  his  wife 
the  Park  Street  estate,  together  with  "all  the  fur- 
niture, stores,  plate,  housekeeping  articles,  pictures, 
engravings,  marbles,  busts  and  works  of  art  and 
taste." 

Mrs.  Ticknor  continued  to  occupy  the  house, 
where  she  is  said  to  have  "ruled  as  a  social  queen," 
until  the  year  1884.  Over  the  mantel  in  the  library 
hung  a  portrait  of  Sir  Walter  Scott.  When  the  Tick- 
nors  were  returning  to  Boston  from  Scotland  in 
1824,  Sir  Walter  offered  to  give  Mr.  Ticknor  some 
remembrance  of  his  visit;  and  the  latter  suggested 
a  portrait  of  his  host.  In  deference  to  Mr.  Ticknor's 
nationality,  an  American  artist,  C.  R.  Leslie,  was 
selected  to  paint  the  portrait,  which  was  considered 
an  excellent  likeness.  Sir  Walter  desired  that  the 
artist  should  include  one  of  his  dogs  in  the  picture; 
but  after  one  or  two  experiments  Mr.  Leslie  decided 
against  it. 

In  the  Park  Street  mansion  for  half  a  century 
many  eminent  citizens  were  hospitably  welcomed. 
Prescott,  the  historian,  was  often  there;  and  among 
other  frequent  visitors  were  Daniel  Webster,  Edward 
Everett,  and  Rufus  Choate. 

"It  was  in  the  Spring  of  1832,"  wrote  Mr.  Hil- 

90 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

lard  in  his  "Memoir"  of  the  Honorable  Jeremiah 
Mason.  "  We  met  at  the  house  of  our  common  friend, 
Mr.  Ticknor;  a  house  for  so  many  years  known  in 
Boston  for  its  elegant  hospitality,  and  the  culti- 
vated and  agreeable  society  which  gathered  there. 
Every  member  of  the  Bar,  and  every  law  student  in 
New  England,  knew  at  least  two  things  about  Mr. 
Mason;  that  he  was  a  very  tall  man,  and  a  very 
great  lawyer.  Had  I  seen  him  without  knowing  who 
he  was,  I  should  have  taken  him  for  a  prosperous 
farmer.  As  I  glanced  from  his  face  to  that  of  Sir 
Walter  Scott,  in  a  fine  portrait  by  Leslie,  which  hung 
over  the  fire-place,  I  thought  I  saw  some  resemblance 
between  the  two." 

An  esteemed  correspondent,  writing  from  New 
Bedford,  enclosed  a  copy  of  an  extract  from  a  Bos- 
ton newspaper  of  the  year  1876,  as  follows:  "George 
Ticknor  was  not  remarkable  for  originality.  He  never 
said  brilliant  things,  nor  surprised  anybody  by  the 
boldness  of  his  criticism.  He  made  no  happy  strokes, 
and  dropped  no  memorable  bons  mots,  to  circulate 
in  the  speech  of  his  friends.  But  his  large  reading, 
his  exact  and  cheerful  scholarship,  his  finely  culti- 
vated taste,  elegant  manners,  and  pronounced  con- 
servatism made  him  conspicuous  and  respected. 
He  was  a  good  listener  and  a  shrewd  observer;  and  if 
his  own  flint  emitted  no  sparks  under  the  steel,  his 
tinder  caught  and  kept  those  struck  from  more 
gifted  minds." 

91 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

The  Society  to  Encourage  Studies  at  Home  was 
founded  by  Miss  Anna  Eliot  Ticknor,  daughter  of 
George  Ticknor,  in  the  year  1873,  and  continued  to 
exist  until  1897.  Meetings  of  the  Society  were  held 
in  the  attractive  library  of  the  mansion.  From  there 
Miss  Ticknor  "laid  out  and  directed  courses  of  study 
over  the  country.  By  a  well  organized  system  of  dis- 
tribution, she  sent  books,  engravings,  photographs, 
maps  and  all  that  makes  the  outfit  of  thorough  in- 
struction, to  the  doors  of  families  living  far  from 
libraries,  museums  or  colleges.  She  opened  new 
sources  of  progress  and  pleasure  to  mothers  and 
their  children  within  their  own  homes;  and  without 
hindering  in  any  way  domestic  duties  or  claims." 
The  Department  of  History  of  the  Society  was  or- 
ganized by  Miss  Katharine  P.  Loring.  The  object 
of  the  teachers  was  to  assist  the  students  in  finding 
the  meaning  of  history,  "and  to  understand  a  people 
by  taking  dates,  events  and  even  the  lives  and  doings 
of  important  men  as  indications,  and  not  as  final 
knowledge."  The  title  was  suggested  by  that  of  an 
English  Society  of  similar  name. 

Edward  Greene  Malbone  (1777-1807),  the  noted 
painter  of  miniatures,  began  his  work  in  Boston  in 
1796,  when  but  nineteen  years  of  age.  He  visited 
Europe  in  1801  with  Washington  Allston,  but  soon 
returned,  and  made  his  home  in  the  Amory  mansion, 
not  long  after  it  was  built.    He  probably  boarded 

92 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

with  Mrs.  Catherine  Carter,  who  entertained  many 
well-known  people  at  her  hostelry  in  the  same  man- 
sion. As  a  portrait-painter  Malbone  was  said  to  have 
ranked  with  the  foremost  artists  of  any  age.  His 
masterpiece  was  called  "The  Hours,"  wherein  the 
present,  past,  and  future  were  represented  by  female 
heads. 

The  Honorable  Fisher  Ames  was  one  of  the  early 
occupants  of  the  Amory  house,  which  was  also  the 
birthplace  of  Thomas  Coffin  Amory,  Junior  (1812-89). 
Mr.  Ames  was  a  graduate  of  Harvard  College,  Class 
of  1774.  He  practised  law  for  a  time  in  his  native 
town  of  Dedham,  and  then  entered  upon  a  political 
career.  Throughout  the  eight  years  of  President 
Washington's  administration  he  was  an  influential 
Federalist  member  of  the  National  Congress.  In 
1804  he  was  elected  President  of  Harvard,  but  ill 
health  obliged  him  to  decline  the  honor. 

The  Amory  house  was  the  home  of  General  La- 
fayette during  his  visit  to  Boston  in  August,  1824. 
At  that  time  the  portion  of  the  building  facing  Beacon 
Street  was  occupied  by  a  Club,  which  was  an  organi- 
zation of  Boston  merchants.  Replying  to  an  address 
of  welcome  by  Mayor  Quincy,  Lafayette  said: 
"What  must  be  my  feelings,  Sir,  at  the  blessed 
moment  when,  after  so  long  an  absence,  I  find  myself 
surrounded  by  the  good  citizens  of  Boston;  when  I 
can  witness  the  prosperity,  the  immense  improve- 
ments, that  have  been  the  just  reward  of  a  noble 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

struggle,  virtuous  morals  and  truly  Republican  In- 
stitutions! I  beg  you  all,  beloved  citizens  of  Boston, 
to  accept  the  respectful  and  warm  thanks  of  a  heart 
which  has,  for  nearly  half  a  century,  been  devoted 
to  your  illustrious  City."  Lafayette  also  declared 
that  the  crowd  which  thronged  the  streets  appeared 
to  him  "like  a  picked  population  out  of  the  whole 
human  race."  1 

While  Marshal  Joffre  was  driving  past  this  house, 
with  his  military  escort,  in  May,  1917,  he  was  ob- 
served to  raise  his  hat;  a  graceful  act,  it  was  believed, 
in  memory  of  his  illustrious  compatriot. 

On  the  day  of  his  arrival  in  Boston,  Lafayette, 
attended  by  the  members  of  his  suite  and  the  civil 
authorities,  passed  along  the  Tremont  Street  Mall 
to  the  foot  of  Park  Street.  He  was  greeted  en  route 
by  some  twenty-five  hundred  school  children,  who 
were  gayly  attired  in  honor  of  the  occasion.  A  bat- 
talion of  light  infantry  formed  in  line  on  Park  Street, 
and  was  reviewed  by  the  General.  The  children 
sang  the  "Marseillaise."  Among  them  was  Wendell 
Phillips,  the  famous  orator,  reformer,  and  aboli- 
tionist, who  was  then  eleven  years  old,  and  a  pupil 
at  the  Public  Latin  School.  Mr.  Phillips  related  how 
he  stood  in  line  with  his  schoolmates  on  that  oc- 
casion. They  had  ribbons,  bearing  portraits  of  La- 
fayette, pinned  on  their  jackets.  And  "when  that 
enthusiast  for  Liberty,  then  a  grand  old  man,  re- 

1  The  Life  of  Josiah  Quincy. 

94 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

visited  the  land,  to  which  in  the  hot  blood  of  youth, 
he  had  given  his  sword,  he  little  dreamed  that  his 
journey  was  to  be  a  triumphal  procession,  such  as  the 
world  had  never  seen."  Even  the  horses  were  ex- 
horted to  do  their  best  on  this  historic  occasion. 
"Behave  pretty  now,  Charley,"  said  the  driver  of 
the  General's  coach  to  one  of  his  pair;  "behave 
pretty;  you  are  going  to  carry  the  greatest  man  in 
the  world."  l 

Soon  after  his  arrival  General  Lafayette  appeared 
upon  the  balcony  above  the  entrance  of  the  Amory 
mansion,  to  receive  the  greetings  of  the  populace. 
He  was  escorted  on  either  side  by  Governor  William 
Eustis  and  by  the  former  Governor  John  Brooks, 
each  wearing  Continental  uniforms.  The  first-named 
had  served  as  a  surgeon  in  the  American  army  dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  and  attended  the  wounded  after 
the  Battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  wherein  Mr.  Brooks  was  a 
participant.  These  two  veteran  officers  had  become 
reconciled  after  an  estrangement,  in  order  that  they 
might  share  together  the  honor  of  welcoming  the 
distinguished  visitor.  On  the  evening  of  August  30, 
1824,  Lafayette  held  a  reception  in  his  apartments  at 
the  Amory  house;  and  this  function  was  attended  by 
many  prominent  ladies  of  Boston. 

In  some  "Reminiscences  of  Lafayette's  Visit  to 
Boston,"  in  1824,  General  William  H.  Sumner  nar- 
rates that  a  portion  of  the  Amory  mansion  was  fitted 

1  Mary  Caroline  Crawford,  Old  New  England  Inns. 

95 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

up  for  the  occasion,  and  that  an  iron  door  was  opened 
in  the  wall  of  the  partition  between  Mrs.  Carter's 
lodgings  and  the  apartments  of  Mrs.  John  Jeffries, 
thus  connecting  the  splendid  drawing-rooms  of  the 
two  houses.  "When  Lafayette  entered  the  house, 
which  was  thrown  open  for  the  free  reception  of 
citizens,  the  latter  rushed  in  to  take  him  by  the  hand. 
But  the  multitude  who  thronged  to  see  him  were  sur- 
prised at  not  being  able  to  do  so;  because  the  moment 
he  entered  the  house,  he  enquired  for  the  bath-room, 
where  he  refreshed  himself  for  so  long  a  time,  that 
many  retired  without  accomplishing  their  wishes." 

On  the  2d  of  September,  when  the  General  re- 
turned from  New  Hampshire,  a  banquet  was  given 
by  the  City  Council  in  his  honor  at  the  Amory- 
Ticknor  house.  Lafayette,  we  are  told,  enjoyed  his 
visit  to  Boston  highly.  He  was  cheered  to  the  echo 
whenever  he  went  abroad;  and  the  corner  of  Park 
Street  was  seldom  deserted.1 

On  the  occasion  of  the  laying  of  the  corner-stone 
of  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  June  17,  1825,  a  pro- 
cession was  formed  at  the  head  of  Park  Street  under 
the  direction  of  Major-General  Theodore  Lyman, 
Junior.  The  military  escort  consisted  of  sixteen 
companies  of  infantry  and  a  cavalry  squadron. 
Then  came  about  forty  veterans,  survivors  of  the 
Battle.  They  were  followed  by  some  two  hundred 
Revolutionary  officers  and  soldiers.  Next  in  the  line 

1  Samuel  A.  Drake,  Historic  Landmarks  of  Boston. 

96 


THE  AMORY-TICKNOR  HOUSE 

were  a  large  body  of  Freemasons,  adorned  with  their 
regalia  and  jewels.  These  preceded  General  Lafa- 
yette, who  rode  in  a  "coach  and  four."  In  that  order 
the  procession  moved  down  Park  Street,  and  along 
Tremont  Street  to  Charlestown.1 

Lafayette's  appearance  at  that  time  was  thus 
described:  "A  tall  man,  of  a  ruddy,  or  rather  sun- 
burnt complexion;  with  strong  features  and  a  very 
gracious  smile.  His  eyes  were  bright  and  expressive. 
He  wore  a  wig,  and  was  dressed  very  plainly  in  a 
brown  frock  coat  and  nankeen  pantaloons.  He 
walked  lame  from  an  old  wound  in  one  of  his  legs; 
and  bowed  with  that  graceful  and  benevolent  air, 
which  ever  distinguishes  a  gentleman." 2  In  a  con- 
temporary account  of  the  anniversary  celebration, 
mention  is  made  of  a  veteran  soldier,  who  occupied 
a  front  seat  of  one  of  the  carriages  in  the  procession. 
Wearing  his  old  battle-stained  uniform,  in  which 
bullet-holes  were  plainly  visible,  he  held  in  his  ex- 
tended right  hand  a  Continental  bullet-pouch,  which 
he  waved  gently,  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  spec- 
tators, by  whom  he  was  greeted  with  wild  enthu- 
siasm. 

1  Caleb  H.  Snow,  A  History  of  Boston, 
8  George  H.  Moore,  LL.D. 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

By  J.  Collins  Warren,  M.D. 

At  the  time  of  my  birth  in  1842,  our  family  was  liv- 
ing in  Pemberton  Square,  at  Number  Twenty-Nine, 
nearly  opposite  the  approach  to  the  Square  from  Som- 
erset Street.  It  was  when  I  was  three  years  of  age  that 
we  moved  into  Number  Six  Park  Street.  Incidentally 
it  may  be  remarked  that  I  have  lived  continuously 
"on  the  Common"  from  that  time  to  this  (1922), 
the  sole  remaining  local  representative  of  the  resi- 
dents of  that  period.  Number  Six  was  a  more  modern 
type  of  house  than  the  Bulfinch  block,  being  con- 
structed, like  its  neighbors,  Numbers  Five,  Seven, 
and  Eight,  with  a  front  elevation  of  the  red-faced 
brick,  which  was  so  characteristic  a  feature  of  the 
fashionable  dwelling  of  that  period.  The  lot  on  which 
this  house  stood,  nineteen  feet  in  width,  had  been  a 
part  of  the  estate  of  Governor  Gore,  which  had  been 
sold  to  Mr.  Francis  C  Gray,  who  built  a  house  for 
himself  on  the  larger  lot.  It  was  purchased  by  Dr. 
John  C.  Warren  in  order  that  his  son  might  be  near 
him;  and  the  house  which  had  already  been  planned 
by  the  architect,  Mr.  George  M.  Dexter,  was  built 
upon  it.  It  was  a  tradition  in  the  family  that  my 
mother  had  hesitated  long  before  agreeing  to  this  site 
in  preference  to  one  next  to  Saint  Paul's  Church  on 

98 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

Tremont  Street.  The  latter  choice  was  finally  set 
aside  as  one  in  too  close  proximity  to  the  inevitable 
funereal  functions  of  its  neighbor.  In  preparation  for 
the  occupancy  of  this  house,  illuminating  gas  was  in- 
troduced into  all  the  rooms;  and  my  mother  was  re- 
sponsible for  a  statement,  often  dwelt  upon  by  her, 
that  this  was  the  first  instance  of  gas  being  used  in  a 
private  dwelling-house  in  the  City;  and  that  the  event 
was  considered  one  of  sufficient  importance  to  be  men- 
tioned in  the  daily  newspapers.  It  must  have  been 
about  this  time  also  (1848)  that  Cochituate  water 
was  introduced  into  the  City.  The  installation  of 
"fixed  basins"  in  every  bedroom  was  then  considered 
a  great  advance  over  the  old  type  of  washstand. 
There  were  two  bath-tubs,  which,  for  a  house  with 
less  than  twenty  feet  frontage,  was  considered  a  gen- 
erous supply.  Both  of  them  were  fitted  with  appara- 
tus for  shower-baths,  which  poured  a  feeble  stream  of 
cold  water  upon  the  shoulders  of  those  whose  systems 
could  withstand  the  shock.  The  tonic  effect  of  this 
mode  of  ablution  was  heralded  abroad  with  much  en- 
thusiasm by  the  medical  fraternity,  and  was  admin- 
istered indiscriminately  to  the  young,  the  feeble,  and 
the  aged,  as  a  panacea  for  many  ailments.  The  im- 
perfections inseparable  from  the  plumbing  of  those 
days  soon  gave  rise  to  complications  which  were  not 
always  compatible  with  an  ideal  hygienic  standard, 
and  finally  led  to  the  abolishment  of  the  "fixed  basin" 
from  the  sleeping-apartment.    It  was  in  this  house 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

that  the  younger  members  of  the  family  were  born; 
and  although  there  were  but  four  master's  bedrooms, 
it  was  supposed  at  the  time  to  give  ample  accommo- 
dations for  a  family  of  seven  children. 

My  earliest  recollections  of  sleeping  conveniences 
are  those  associated  with  a  "trundle  bed,"  which  in 
the  daytime  disappeared  beneath  the  flowing  drap- 
ery of  the  four-posted  bed  of  my  parents.  The  draw- 
ing- and  dining-rooms  were  up  one  flight  of  stairs; 
which  occupied  so  much  space  in  the  centre  of  the 
building  that  the  passage  which  communicated  with 
these  two  apartments  was  a  long  and  narrow  one. 
The  doctor's  office  was  on  the  ground  floor,  and  the 
adjacent  hall  did  service  for  the  waiting  patients;  as 
did  also  a  goodly  portion  of  the  first  flight  of  stairs. 

My  good  father  was  fond  of  sermonizing  on  the  lux- 
uries of  the  day,  as  compared  with  those  of  his  youth. 
Doubtless  the  changes  in  "essentials"  since  his  time 
have  much  to  do  with  present-day  laments  over  the 
high  cost  of  living.  Our  immediate  neighbors  on  each 
side  were  members  of  the  Quincy  family.  I  recall  a 
visit  which  I  made  with  my  father  to  President 
Josiah  Quincy  in  his  old  age.  He  was  suffering  from 
an  injury  to  his  hip,  caused  by  a  fall.  He  had  been  at- 
tended medically  during  his  long  life  by  three  genera- 
tions of  the  Warren  family;  and  inasmuch  as  the  first 
generation  yielded  two  members  to  his  service  (Jo- 
seph and  John),  my  father  thought  that  the  oppor- 
tunity should  not  be  missed  of  introducing  to  him  a 

100 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

fifth  Warren.  I  was  still  quite  a  lad,  and  doubtless 
went  with  my  father  more  or  less  by  compulsion ;  but 
I  recall  vividly  the  scolding  which  my  father  got  for 
not  giving  him  a  better  leg.  This  threw  me  for  the 
time  being  quite  into  the  background,  much  to  my 
satisfaction.  After  the  death  of  President  Quincy,  the 
house  passed,  I  think,  into  the  possession  of  Governor 
Gardner,  and  underwent  much  alteration,  receiving 
in  the  lower  story  a  facing  of  freestone,  which  had 
then  begun  to  be  a  fashionable  material. 

Number  Eight  Park  Street  was  occupied  at  that 
time  by  the  Honorable  Abbott  Lawrence,  whose 
dwelling  has  been  preserved  with  comparatively  little 
change  in  many  of  its  parts,  by  the  Union  Club.  I  re- 
call a  very  agreeable  visit  to  Mr.  Lawrence,  in  my 
childhood;  and  was  much  entertained,  while  seated 
on  his  knee,  by  the  exhibition  of  a  bag  of  copper 
coins,  which  had  recently  been  discovered  by  work- 
men digging  in  his  cellar. 

They  were  of  more  historic  than  monetary  value, 
bearing  the  imprint  of  King  George,  and  evidently 
buried  there  in  Revolutionary  times. 

After  the  death  of  my  grandfather  in  1856,  we 
moved  into  Number  Two  Park  Street,  and  Number 
Six  was  occupied  by  my  uncle,  J.  Sullivan  Warren  and 
his  wife.  My  uncle  died  in  1867,  and  his  widow  con- 
tinued to  live  there  until  her  death  in  1896. 

Number  Two  Park  Street  was  one  of  a  block  of 
four  brick  houses,  four  stories  in  height,  with  low 

101 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

attic  roofs.  An  iron  balcony  on  the  parlor  floor  re- 
lieved the  simplicity  of  the  front  elevation.  A  broad 
arched  doorway  gave  cover  to  a  flight  of  two  steps, 
and  avoided  encroachment  upon  the  sidewalk,  which 
was  of  more  moderate  width  than  at  the  present  time; 
a  sidewalk  of  similar  breadth  then  existed  on  the  Com- 
mon side  of  the  street.  Each  lot  represented  a  front- 
age of  about  forty  feet,  which  gave  ample  space  for  a 
passage  to  the  right  of  the  main  entrance  into  the 
back  yard.  This  was  a  necessary  feature  of  each 
building,  owing  to  the  absence  of  an  alleyway  in  the 
rear  of  the  block,  due  to  the  fact  that  the  lots  abutted 
directly  upon  the  Granary  Burying-Ground.  The 
original  plans  '  show  an  arched  entrance  to  this  pas- 
sageway, possibly  intended  to  admit  vehicles.  The 
windows  on  the  other  side  of  the  front  door  are  drawn 
on  a  smaller  scale  than  those  which  existed  in  my 
time,  and  resemble  many  still  to  be  seen  in  some  of  the 
ancient  residences  on  Beacon  Hill. 

The  house  as  originally  built  occupied  the  front  of 
the  lot  only;  and  an  Ell  was  subsequently  added  on 
the  northern  half  of  the  yard,  which  extended  nearly 
to  the  rear  boundary  fence.  This  had  a  solid  brick 
base  supporting  a  tall  iron  railing,  in  one  corner  of 
which  was  a  padlocked  gate,  permitting  at  times  ac- 
cess to  the  cemetery.  This  enclosure  served  the  pur- 
pose of  a  private  city  park  for  the  abutters,  rather 

1  In  the  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society,  and  signed 
by  Bulfinch. 

102 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

than  a  place  for  the  burial  of  the  dead;  for  few  inter- 
ments were  made  there  after  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  It  afforded  far  from  a  mournful 
prospect  to  the  occupants  of  the  Park  Street  dwellings, 
and  served  as  a  playground  for  the  children  of  the 
family.  In  the  summer-time  the  foliage  was  most  lux- 
uriant; and  before  the  advent  of  horse-cars  on  Tre- 
mont  Street,  the  enclosure  afforded  to  the  inhabitants 
of  Park  Street  all  the  advantages  of  private  grounds; 
giving  protection  from  the  noises  of  city  life,  and  pro- 
viding a  much  enjoyed  breathing  space  in  the  very 
heart  of  the  metropolis.  With  the  broad  expanse  of 
Boston  Common  on  the  western  front,  the  buildings 
afforded  an  ideal  dwelling  spot,  for  the  better  part  of 
a  century,  until  the  rising  tide  of  traffic  finally  forced 
the  last  inhabitant  into  a  new  residential  district. 
Many  were  the  adventures  in  the  "Old  Granary,"  as 
it  was  called.  Members  of  my  family  can  still  tell  of 
picnics  and  other  festivals  held  upon  the  quaint  old 
table-like  structures  covering  the  graves  of  families 
with  historic  names. 

Many  of  these  tablets  were  already  showing  signs  of 
extreme  age,  and  the  loosened  brick- work  of  crumb- 
ling walls  furnished  temptation  to  youthful  curiosity. 
But  a  wholesome  respect  for,  not  to  say  fear  of, 
their  gruesome  contents,  restrained  tendencies  to  ju- 
venile vandalism.  Governor  Gardner,  who  at  one 
time  occupied  the  house,  Number  Seven  Park  Street, 
once  told  the  writer  that  a  tomb  in  the  rear  of  this  lot 

103 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

had  greatly  excited  the  curiosity  of  members  of  his 
family  by  showing  signs  of  collapse  in  one  of  its  walls, 
sufficient  to  expose  the  contents.  The  final  tumbling 
in  of  a  few  loose  bricks,  perhaps  aided  in  their  fall  by 
inquisitive  hands,  disclosed  a  skull  still  covered  with 
luxurious  flaxen  tresses.  The  excitement  caused  by 
this  discovery  induced  him  to  examine  into  the  his- 
tory of  the  former  inhabitants  of  this  last  resting- 
place.  Investigation  led  to  the  somewhat  startling 
discovery  that  a  beautiful  young  lady  who  had  died 
of  smallpox  had  found  here  an  untimely  grave.  .  . . 

At  Number  Two  Park  Street  Dr.  and  Mrs.  John 
C.  Warren  passed  their  married  life;  and  here  their 
children  were  born.  There  were  three  boys,  John, 
James  Sullivan,  and  Jonathan  Mason;  and  three  girls, 
Susan  (Mrs.  Charles  Lyman),  Mary  Collins  (Mrs. 
Thomas  Dwight),  and  Emily  (Mrs.  William  Apple- 
ton).  My  father  (Mason)  was  born,  and  died  in  the 
same  room  (1810-67);  a  record  certainly  unusual  in 
the  rapidly  changing  conditions  of  an  American  city. 

The  house,  as  originally  built,  contained  no  fur- 
nace. In  cold  weather  the  older  people  sat  around  the 
fire;  while  the  boys  lighted  pieces  of  brown  paper,  and 
shook  them  up  and  down  in  their  long  boots  to  warm 
them,  before  venturing  to  pull  them  on.  Although 
windows  were  usually  kept  closed  at  night,  ice  had  to 
be  broken  for  the  boys  to  wash  in,  on  rising  in  the 
morning.  Fortunately,  the  house  was  situated  in  a 
sheltered  spot  under  the  brow  of  Beacon  Hill,  and  in 

104 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

later  years,  when  the  hot-air  furnace  was  in  all  its 
glory,  there  was  never  any  difficulty  in  keeping  the 
house  warm  in  spite  of  its  wide  frontage  and  the  entire 
absence  of  double  windows. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  century,  the  custom  pre- 
vailed of  apprenticing  the  young  student  of  medicine 
to  a  member  of  the  Faculty.  Until  1810  the  medical 
lectures  were  given  at  Cambridge,  and  until  1821, 
when  the  Massachusetts  General  Hospital  opened  its 
doors  for  patients,  little  or  no  facilities  for  studying 
disease  in  hospital  wards  existed  in  Boston.  The  ap- 
prentice system,  therefore,  still  prevailed  as  a  legacy 
from  a  previous  generation.  My  father  often  described 
to  me  the  conditions  which  consequently  existed  at 
Number  Two  Park  Street  during  his  boyhood  days. 
A  room  on  the  ground  floor,  well  sanded,  was  given 
up  to  the  medical  students.  Here  the  pupils  pursued 
their  studies,  and  picked  up  such  clinical  experience 
as  the  practice  of  their  preceptor  afforded. 

The  students  also  boarded,  or  at  all  events  took 
their  midday  meal,  in  the  house.  The  boys,  Sullivan 
and  Mason,  were  given  places  at  the  table,  and  took 
advantage  of  their  association  with  companions  of 
more  mature  years  to  play  many  childish  pranks  upon 
them.  I  recall  the  thrilling  story  of  a  fiery-headed 
youth,  generally  regarded  as  the  "butt"  of  his  com- 
rades, who,  after  some  more  than  usually  impudent 
practical  joke,  pursued  relentlessly  young  Sullivan 
Warren  out  of  the  house  and  across  the  Common, 

105 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

until  the  guilty  urchin  found  sanctuary  in  the  Frog 
Pond.  This  was  before  the  day  when  that  delightful 
old  reminder  of  the  mother  country,  the  iron  fence, 
had  been  erected. 

The  rapidly  increasing  volume  of  works  on  medical 
subjects  finally  necessitated  the  construction  of  an 
Ell,  in  which  the  library  was  placed.  Here  all  non- 
professional books  found  an  asylum,  in  cases  of  ma- 
hogany hue  reaching  nearly  to  the  ceiling,  and  form- 
ing an  oval  room  of  charming  proportions,  decorated 
with  portraits  and  busts  of  many  old  worthies.  In 
an  alcove  at  the  farther  end,  receiving  light  from  the 
"Old  Granary,"  stood  a  bust  of  James  Jackson,  the 
lifelong  friend,  which  seemed  to  give  special  charac- 
ter and  dignity  to  the  apartment.  My  recollections 
of  the  house  during  this  period  of  its  history  are  con- 
fined to  occasional  visits  to  my  grandfather,  and 
to  my  step-grandmother;  and  also  to  the  annual 
family  gatherings,  which  occurred  on  Thanksgiving 
Days.  It  was  our  custom  to  attend  these  every  other 
year,  the  alternate  years  being  devoted  to  similar 
gatherings  at  the  home  of  my  mother's  father,  the 
Honorable  B.  W.  Crowninshield,  on  the  corner  of 
Somerset  and  Beacon  Streets.  It  would  appear  that 
the  harvest  fete  day  was  more  formally  observed  by 
the  heads  of  families  at  that  time  than  either  Christ- 
mas or  New  Year's  Day.  I  also  recall  attending  the 
wedding  of  Emily  Warren  and  William  Appleton, 
when  hardly  more  than  three  years  of  age.  The  cere- 

106 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

mony  was  held  in  the  two  front  rooms,  which  gave 
space  for  a  large  gathering;  and  the  service  was 
performed  by  the  Reverend  Alexander  H.  Vinton. 
Susan  Powell  Mason  died  on  January  3,  1841;  and  in 
October,  1843,  Dr.  Warren  married  Anne  Winthrop, 
sister  of  the  Honorable  Robert  C.  Winthrop.  After 
her  death,  in  December,  1851,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  James 
Sullivan  Warren  came  to  live  at  Number  Two  Park 
Street. 

Dr.  John  C.  Warren  died  in  1856,  and  in  the  fall  of 
the  next  year  his  son,  Dr.  Jonathan  Mason  Warren, 
moved  from  Number  Six  Park  Street  into  his  father's 
house.  The  old  homestead  at  this  time  needed  much 
renovation.  As  the  family  had  gradually  diminished 
in  size,  many  of  the  rooms  were  given  up  to  osteo- 
logical  and  fossil  collections;  accumulations  of  years 
during  the  development  of  the  "Mastodon  Museum" 
on  Chestnut  Street.  A  full-sized  copy  in  oil  of  Rem- 
brandt's "Lesson  in  Anatomy"  occupied  the  south- 
ern wall  of  the  entrance  hall;  but  this  was  removed, 
partly  in  deference  to  my  mother's  protests,  and 
partly  for  the  purpose  of  cutting  an  archway  to 
communicate  with  a  patients'  waiting-room,  in  the 
space  formerly  provided  for  the  alleyway.  The  neces- 
sary alterations  were  completed  during  the  winter, 
and  my  father  and  his  family  entered  into  possession 
in  the  autumn  of  1857.  I  recall  that  a  valuation  of 
forty  thousand  dollars  had  been  put  upon  the  house 
by  the  executors  of  my  grandfather's  estate;  a  figure 

107 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

which  my  father  regarded  as  excessively  high,  and 
therefore  prejudicial  to  his  financial  interests  as  one 
of  the  heirs.  The  mansion  at  this  period  was  a  fine 
example  of  an  old  Boston  homestead,  made  com- 
fortable by  many  modern  improvements.  There 
were  two  bath-rooms,  and  set  basins  in  many  of 
the  bed-chambers.  This  custom  was,  I  think,  quite 
universal  at  the  time,  there  being  no  prejudice 
against  the  presence  of  waste  pipes  in  a  sleeping 
apartment. 

On  the  ground  floor,  and  opposite  to  the  new  arched 
recess  in  the  front  entry,  was  the  doctor's  office. 
The  room  had  two  windows  facing  on  the  street,  and 
partook  more  of  the  character  of  a  "Study"  than 
of  an  "Office."  High  oak-colored  book-cases  sur- 
rounded what  was  in  reality  a  spacious  apartment, 
forming  an  oval  curve  at  the  farther  end,  through 
which  an  entrance  penetrated  into  an  interior  lava- 
tory and  medicine  closet,  provided  with  remedies 
such  as  the  times  afforded.  Between  the  windows 
was  an  old  mahogany  piece  of  furniture,  which  con- 
tained on  its  ^shelves  above  books  of  reference,  and 
below  a  series  of  shallow  drawers  containing  a  for- 
midable array  of  surgical  instruments,  most  of  which 
in  the  fulness  of  time  have  since  found  their  way 
into  the  cases  of  the  historical  collection  at  the  Har- 
vard Medical  School.  Here  was  to  be  found  a  fine 
medical  library,  the  accumulation  of  half  a  century 
of  medical  literature,  and  giving  a  fair  representa- 

108 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

tion  of  the  medical  progress  of  that  period.  No  ex- 
pense had  been  spared  by  its  former  occupant,  and 
my  father  became  thus  the  possessor,  not  only  of 
the  current  medical  literature  of  the  day,  but  also 
of  many  a  rare  and  valuable  monograph  produced  at 
times  when  no  thought  of  expense  stood  in  the  way 
of  an  ambitious  author.  The  old  library  on  the  sec- 
ond floor  of  the  Ell  was  carefully  preserved  from  any 
modern  improvements,  and  continued  to  represent 
the  dwelling-place  of  the  lares  and  penates.  The  front 
rooms  on  this  floor  were  separated  by  the  typical 
mahogany  "folding-door,"  one  of  them  being  given 
up  to  the  dining-room,  as  in  former  times;  and  the 
other  to  the  drawing-room;  or,  as  it  was  usually 
called  by  us  children,  "the  best  parlor."  The  view 
from  these  rooms  was  an  exceptional  one  in  the  City 
at  that  period;  there  being  no  dwelling-houses  inter- 
vening between  this  block  and  the  sky-line  formed 
by  the  hills  of  Brookline.  The  western  sun  on  a 
winter's  day  gave  light  and  warmth  which  pene- 
trated all  corners  of  these  houses  until  the  very  close 
of  the  day.  Our  family  consisted  at  that  time  of  my 
father,  Jonathan  Mason  Warren,  my  mother,  Annie 
Crowninshield  Warren,  and  five  children,  —  Mary 
(Mrs.  Samuel  Hammond),  myself,  next  in  order; 
then  Rosamond  (Mrs.  C.  H.  Gibson),  Eleanor  (Mrs. 
Thomas  Motley),  and  Annie  C.  Warren.  The  wed- 
dings of  Mrs.  Hammond  (1858),  Mrs.  Gibson  (1871), 
and  Mrs.  Motley  (1872)  took  place  while  they  were 

109 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

living  in  this  house.  Dr.  Mason  Warren  died  here  on 
August  19,  1867.  During  the  season  of  1868-69,  the 
house  was  leased  to  and  occupied  by  John  Lothrop 
Motley,  the  historian.  In  the  summer  of  that  year 
the  writer  returned  from  a  three  years'  course  of 
medical  study  in  Europe,  and  began  the  practice  of 
his  profession  in  the  old  doctor's  office;  and  con- 
tinued in  practice  there  until  1874,  when  he  removed 
to  Number  Fifty-Eight  Beacon  Street,  where  he  has 
since  resided  (1922). 

The  night  of  the  Great  Boston  Fire  in  1872  was  a 
memorable  one  for  Number  Two.  This  private 
dwelling  was  then  on  the  very  front  line  of  the  resi- 
dential district;  and  with  its  neighbors  in  the  block 
was  nearer  to  the  seat  of  the  conflagration  than  any 
dwelling-house  of  that  period.  The  writer,  being  the 
only  occupant  of  the  house  at  that  time,  hastily 
summoned  members  of  the  family  from  their  homes 
in  the  "Back  Bay,"  and  they  kept  open  house  for 
the  greater  part  of  the  night.  Old  fire  bags,  bearing 
the  name  of  John  C.  Warren,  were  unearthed  from 
their  concealment  in  ornamental  fire  buckets  of  the 
date  1816.  These  were  filled  with  silver;  and  to- 
gether with  valuable  paintings,  were  removed  to  the 
homes  of  relatives.  This  was  not  done  until  the  fire 
had  worked  up  Summer  Street  as  far  as  Washington 
Street,  when  it  was  felt  that  the  stampede  of  vehicles 
of  all  kinds  would  soon  make  passage  from  Park 
Street  to  Beacon  Street  impracticable. 

110 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

The  final  occupants  of  the  old  homestead  were 
Mrs.  Jonathan  Mason  Warren  and  her  unmarried 
daughter,  Annie  C.  Warren,  who  remained  there  un- 
til the  house  was  pulled  down  and  replaced  as  an 
office  and  store  building,  which  was  leased  to  Messrs. 
Doll  &  Richards  for  a  term  of  years.  This  event  oc- 
curred in  the  year  1878. 

The  tearing  down  of  the  old  Bulfinch  building 
opened  a  vista  into  the  cemetery  from  Park  Street. 
Public  attention  was  thus  drawn  anew  to  this  old 
relic  of  the  past.  The  grave  of  John  Hancock  was 
situated  in  this  part  of  the  grounds  and  had  always 
been  an  object  of  interest  to  visitors  at  Number  Two 
Park  Street.  A  single  stone  with  the  simple  inscrip- 
tion "Hancock"  was  all  that  marked  the  site  of  the 
grave.  It  was  not  long  after  this  occurrence  that  a 
suitable  monument  was  placed  over  the  grave  of  this 
distinguished  Bostonian,  for  the  first  time,  so  as  to 
be  easily  seen  by  the  passer-by  on  the  crowded  Tre- 
mont  Street  thoroughfare.  Numbers  Three  and  Four 
of  this  block  had,  if  my  memory  serves  me  right, 
already  been  claimed  for  business  purposes;  but  Num- 
ber One  was  still  occupied  by  Mr.  Thomas  Wiggles- 
worth  and  his  two  sisters,  Miss  Mary  and  Miss  Anne. 

I  was  sent  to  school  at  Park  Street  Church  at  the 
age  of  five.  This  was  in  1847.  It  was  a  girls'  school, 
kept  by  Miss  Dwight,  and  I  was  the  only  boy. 
The  school-room  was  situated  in  the  brick  portion  of 
the  tower  which  supports  the  steeple,  and  was  lighted 

111 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

by  an  arched  window  above  the  main  entrance  on 
Tremont  Street.  A  door  from  the  farther  end  led 
directly  up  into  the  wooden  steeple,  which  served  as 
a  playground  for  the  pupils.  Miss  D wight's  scholars 
varied  in  age  from  beginners  to  "big  girls."  I  re- 
mained there  about  one  year,  and  then  was  trans- 
ferred to  Mr.  D.  B.  Tower's  School  for  Boys.  This 
school  occupied  a  large  room  on  the  ground  floor  of 
the  church,  running  from  Park  Street  to  the  rear  of 
the  building,  facing  directly  upon  the  Granary  Bury- 
ing-Ground.  The  entrance  was,  as  at  present,  on  Park 
Street.  Mr.  Tower  had  for  assistants  Mr.  Tweed  and 
Mr.  Baxter.  Mr.  Tower  was  a  short,  thick-set  man, 
with  a  powerful  physique.  He  had  a  deep  voice  and 
somewhat  imperious  manner;  but  was  much  inter- 
ested in  his  pupils  individually,  and  was  a  popular 
and  successful  teacher.  Mr.  Tweed,  the  senior  assist- 
ant, was  no  longer  young.  He  was  tall  and  slender  in 
figure,  a  quaint  old-fashioned  type,  long  since  passed 
away.  Mr.  Baxter  was  a  most  genial  schoolmaster, 
and  with  his  colleagues  succeeded  in  keeping  well 
in  hand  a  conglomeration  of  representatives  of  the 
younger  generation  of  fashionable  and  unfashionable 
Boston  of  the  period.  I  remember  that  Thanksgiv- 
ing Day  was  always  observed  by  an  annual  gathering 
at  the  school.  Each  boy's  desk  was  covered  with 
a  generous  supply  of  apples,  nuts,  and  raisins;  and 
some  of  the  older  boys  were  expected  to  contribute 
to  the  day's  entertainment  by  "speaking  pieces." 

112 


REMINISCENCES  OF  PARK  STREET 

One  of  the  oldest  boys  in  the  school  was  the  lead- 
ing star,  and  always  wound  up  the  day's  exer- 
cises with  an  oratorical  effort,  which  was  greatly 
appreciated.  Mr.  Sullivan's  school  for  boys  was  in 
the  basement  of  the  church,  and  was  approached 
from  Park  Street  corner  by  a  steep  flight  of  steps. 
This  was  also  a  popular  school,  but  not  so  large  as 
its  neighbors.  The  schools  above  mentioned  all  con- 
tinued to  occupy  the  church  building  for  many  years 
after. 

During  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  Civil 
War,  the  eastern  part  of  the  Common,  especially  the 
grass-plot  alongside  Park  Street  Mall,  was  a  favorite 
playground  for  school-boys,  hockey  being  then  a 
popular  feature  in  athletics.  Many  boys  from  the 
Public  Latin  School,  then  on  Bedford  Street,  took 
part  in  these  sports.  In  the  spring  and  summer  the 
game  of  marbles  was  a  customary  pastime.  In  those 
days  the  Park  Street  region  was  purely  residential; 
the  only  evidence  of  its  role  as  a  thoroughfare  being 
the  passage  of  the  old  stage-coach  in  the  early  morn- 
ing hours,  from  the  northern  to  the  southern  railway 
terminus,  and  the  not  infrequent  blocking  of  the 
road  by  flocks  of  sheep  which  were  being  driven 
across  the  city.  Cab-stands  were  unknown,  and  a 
quiet,  home-like  atmosphere,  which  also  pervaded 
both  Tremont  and  Winter  Streets,  gave  safe  ap- 
proach for  timid  pedestrians  to  the  shopping  district. 
The  residential  quarter  of  Boston  at  that  time  was 

113 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

largely  in  this  locality,  and  the  fine  old  specimens  of 
early  nineteenth  century  architecture,  extending  well 
beyond  Washington  Street,  through  Summer  Street, 
past  Church  Green,  were  strongly  suggestive  of  many 
parts  of  the  mother  City  of  London. 


PARK  STREET  CHURCH 

The  lot  whereon  the  Granary  stood,  measuring  one 
hundred  and  eighteen  feet  along  Park  Street,  was 
sold  by  the  Town  agents,  November  10,  1795,  for 
the  sum  of  $8366  to  Major-General  Henry  Jackson, 
who  commanded  the  Massachusetts  Militia  at  the 
time  of  the  sale.  He  had  served  with  distinction  dur- 
ing the  Revolution,  and  was  the  owner  of  consid- 
erable real  estate  in  the  town.  From  him  the  Granary 
lot  passed  to  the  control  of  Mrs.  Hepsibah  Swan,  the 
widow  of  James  Swan.  Thereafter  it  became  the 
property  of  her  daughters,  who  sold  the  premises, 
April  13,  1809,  to  Caleb  Bingham,  book-seller  and 
publisher;  Andrew  Calhoun,  merchant;  and  William 
Thurston,  Esq.,  Trustees  of  the  Church.  The  price 
paid  for  this  land  was  twenty  thousand  dollars. 

A  subsequent  deed  to  Samuel  H.  Walley,  January 
17,  1810,  recites  that  "a  Church  of  Christ,  called 
Park  Street  Church,  had  been  gathered  in  the  Town 
of  Boston;  and  a  brick  meeting-house  lately  erected 
on  a  street  formerly  called  Centry  Street,  and  now 
called  Park  Place."  The  Trustees  "do  permit  and 
suffer  the  said  house  and  land  to  be  used,  occupied 
and  enjoyed  as  and  for  a  meeting-house  or  place  for 
the  public,  Protestant  worship  and  service  of  God." 

The  Granary  was  removed  in  1809,  and  the  Church 
115 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

was  built  immediately  afterward  from  designs  pre- 
pared by  Peter  Banner,  an  English  architect  and 
builder,  of  whom  little  is  known.  The  wooden  capi- 
tals of  the  steeple  are  the  handiwork  of  Solomon 
Willard,  the  architect  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument. 
The  mason-work  was  under  the  supervision  of  Bena- 
jah  Brigham.  It  was  the  intention  of  the  Building 
Committee  to  use  common  bricks;  but  better  coun- 
sels prevailed,  and  face  bricks  were  employed.  The 
building,  now  seen  in  its  original  red-brick  dress,  was 
newly  painted  in  1906.  At  that  time,  to  quote  from  a 
recent  writer,  "the  sympathetically  toned  gray  of 
the  body  of  the  Church,  with  its  white  trimmings, 
combined  to  give  a  pearly  effect,  which  could  not  but 
convey  to  the  coarsest  apprehension  the  fact  that 
this  Church  was  a  pearl  of  great  price  for  Boston." 

Henry  James,  the  American  novelist,  described  its 
style  of  architecture  as  "perfectly  felicitous."  "Its 
spire,"  he  said,  "recalls  Wren's  bold  London  exam- 
ples, like  the  comparatively  thin  echo  of  a  far-away 
song;  playing  its  part,  however,  for  harmonious  effect 
as  perfectly  as  possible."  Mr.  James  regarded  this 
Church  building  as  "the  most  interesting  mass  of 
brick  and  mortar  in  America."  [The  weather-vane, 
which  crowns  the  spire,  is  two  hundred  and  seventeen 
feet  above  the  street  level.  Many  will  recall  the  thrill- 
ing sight  of  a  steeple-jack,  engaged  in  regilding  this 
vane  a  few  years  ago.  It  was  not  originally  intended 
that  the  edifice  should  have  a  spire.  But  the  Building 

116 


PARK  STREET  CHURCH 

Showing  Fence  and  Sidewalk  along  the  Common,  Horse-Car  Tracks 

in  Tremont  Street,  and  the  Paddock  Elms  in  front  of  the 

Granary  Burying-Ground 


PARK  STREET  CHURCH 

Committee  yielded  to  the  prevailing  sentiment  that 
a  Church  occupying  such  a  prominent  site  should  be 
thus  ornamented.  And  for  more  than  a  century  the 
graceful  spire  has  remained  intact,  defying  the  fury 
of  winter  storms;  although  it  was  observed  to  sway 
considerably  during  the  great  gale  which  destroyed 
Minot's  Ledge  Light  House  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century.1 

The  Park  Street  Church  Society  was  organized  at 
the  mansion  of  William  Thurston,  a  well-known  at- 
torney, on  Bowdoin  Street,  February  27,  1809;  and 
in  that  house  the  first  religious  exercises  of  the  new 
Society  were  held.  The  Corner-Stone  of  the  Church 
building  was  laid  May  1,  1809;  and  the  total  cost  of 
the  latter  was  somewhat  over  seventy  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  Dedication  Sermon  was  preached  by  the 
Reverend  Doctor  Edward  Dorr  Griffin,  January  10, 
1810;  and  he  was  installed  as  Pastor,  July  31,  1811. 

Mr.  Lindsay  Swift,  in  his  "Literary  Landmarks  of 
Boston,"  wrote  that  Park  Street  Church  is  an  im- 
portant strategic  point;  and  that  "all  roads  lead  to 
Rome,  except  in  Boston,  where  they  lead  to,  or  cer- 
tainly from  this  convenient  centre  of  the  City's  life." 
For  many  years  the  corner  of  Tremont  and  Park 
Streets  has  been  a  rendezvous,  and  a  point  of  de- 
parture, especially  for  strangers. 

The  origin  of  the  name  "Brimstone  Corner,"  some- 
times applied  to  this  locality,  has  been  attributed  to 

*  April  81. 1851. 

117 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

the  fervid  doctrines  preached  within  the  walls  of  the 
Church.  The  true  source  of  that  name  appears  to  be 
the  historic  fact  that  brimstone,  for  use  in  making 
gunpowder,  was  stored  in  the  building  during  the 
War  of  1812.  There  is  also  a  tradition  that  in  the 
early  days  of  this  Church,  sulphur  was  sprinkled  on 
the  sidewalk  near  by,  to  attract  the  attention  of  way- 
farers. In  this  building  were  founded  the  American 
Education  Society  (1815),  the  Prison  Reform  Society, 
and  the  American  Temperance  Society  (1826). 

On  the  Fourth  of  July,  1832,  the  song  "America" 
was  heard  in  public  for  the  first  time,  at  a  children's 
celebration  in  Park  Street  Church.  The  author,  Sam- 
uel Francis  Smith,  then  a  theological  student  at  An- 
dover,  Massachusetts,  had  composed  poetry  from  his 
childhood.  Inspired  by  the  words  of  a  patriotic  Ger- 
man hymn,  he  determined  to  produce  an  anthem 
which  should  manifest  the  love  felt  by  him  for  his  own 
country.  "  Seizing  a  scrap  of  paper,  he  began  to  write, 
and  in  half  an  hour  the  words  stood  upon  it  substan- 
tially as  they  are  sung  to-day."  * 

On  Sunday  forenoon,  November  24,  1895,  one  of 
the  workmen  engaged  in  excavating  for  the  Tremont 
Street  Subway,  almost  under  the  front  wall  of  Park 
Street  Church,  probably  struck  his  pickaxe  into  a 
main  water-pipe,  which  burst;  and  the  water  shot  up 
with  such  force  that  it  broke  the  window  glass  in  the 
minister's  study,  ruining  its  furnishings,  and  covering 

1  C.  A.  Browne,  The  Story  of  Our  National  Ballads, 

118 


PARK  STREET  CHURCH 

with  mud  its  carpet  and  luxurious  upholstery.  Fears 
were  entertained  that  the  foundations  of  the  building 
had  been  weakened.  At  the  following  evening  service 
the  minister  told  the  members  of  his  congregation 
that  it  was  an  outrage  to  permit  the  carrying  on  of 
such  work  at  the  very  portals  of  the  Church  on  a  Sun- 
day. And  with  natural  righteous  indignation  he  re- 
ferred to  the  Subway  as  "an  infernal  hole,"  in  more 
than  one  sense.  "And  who  is  the  Boss  in  charge  of 
this  work?"  he  demanded.  Then  after  a  pause,  he 
added,  "It  is  the  Devil!" 

In  1809,  when  Park  Street  Church  was  built,  Bos- 
ton still  preserved  the  appearance  of  an  old  English 
market-town.  No  curbstones  separated  the  streets 
from  the  sidewalks.  The  cows  still  browsed  on  the 
Common,  and  the  Town  Crier  made  his  proclama- 
tions. There  were  then  but  two  houses  of  more  than 
one  story  on  the  present  Tremont  Street.  "Colon- 
nade Row  had  not  been  built,  and  Boston  was  a  city 
of  gardens.  There  were  only  a  few  residences  on  Bea- 
con Hill:  its  western  slope  was  a  series  of  terraces. 
The  business  section  of  to-day  still  retained  its  resi- 
dential character,  with  its  old-fashioned  gardens, 
trees  and  churches."  * 

In  1902  Park  Street  Church  and  its  site  were  sold 
for  one  and  a  quarter  million  dollars  to  a  syndicate  of 
business  men,  who  proposed  to  erect  in  its  stead  a 
sky-scraper  office  building.   Thereupon  a  committee 

1  The  Preservation  of  Park  Street  Church.  Boston,  1903. 

119 


OLD  PAEK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

of  influential  persons  was  formed,  whose  object  was 
the  preservation  of  the  Church  property.  It  was 
justly  claimed  that  the  whole  aspect  of  the  Common 
and  of  the  Granary  Burial-Ground  would  be  irre- 
trievably marred  by  the  destruction  of  this  impressive 
landmark.  The  committee  doubtless  reflected  the 
prevailing  sentiment  of  the  community,  in  their  plea 
that  the  preservation  of  the  Church  would  avert  a 
severe  blow  to  the  architectural  beauty  of  the  City. 
And  they  maintained  with  reason  that  the  building 
could  be  made  to  serve  as  an  important  centre  for 
educational  and  civic  work.  Influenced,  it  may  be, 
by  the  trend  of  public  opinion,  the  members  of  the 
syndicate  failed  to  meet  a  condition  of  the  transfer; 
namely,  that  they  should  pay  three  hundred  thou- 
sand dollars  of  the  purchase  money  within  a  specified 
time.  Therefore  it  was  announced  in  April,  1903,  that 
the  preservation  of  the  Church  was  assured.  The 
published  account  of  the  Semi-Centennial  Celebra- 
tion of  the  founding  of  Park  Street  Church,  held  in 
1859,  contains  these  eloquent  words :  "For  nearly  half 
a  century  this  majestic  spire  has  withstood  the  burn- 
ing heat  of  the  summer's  sun,  and  the  freezing  cold  of 
inclement  winters.  The  storms  have  raged  and  north- 
west winds  have  roared  around  it;  gales  which  have 
uprooted  the  massive  elms  of  our  magnificent  Com- 
mon, have  passed  it  unheeded;  even  the  earthquake's 
shock,  and  the  lightning's  fiery  blast  have  shaken, 
yet  spared  it.   And  Time,  old  Time,  which  subdues 

no 


PARK  STREET  CHURCH 

all  things,  has  laid  a  gentle  hand  upon  its  head.  What 
time  and  the  elements  have  suffered  to  endure,  let  man 
preserve!" 

"I  love  to  stop  before  the  beautiful  Park  Street 
Church  spire,"  said  the  Reverend  J.  Edgar  Park,  in 
an  Artillery  Election  Sermon,  delivered  in  the  New 
Old  South  Church,  June  7,  1920,  "almost  the  last 
hold  that  the  ancient  town  of  Boston  has  upon  the 
cosmopolitan  city;  a  spire  that  speaks  still  of  the  old 
residential  Beacon  Street,  and  of  the  days  when  its 
bell  called  across  the  Common  to  its  congregation  to 
gather  in  their  meeting-house,  to  worship  the  God  of 
the  Pilgrim  Fathers.  Here  I  feel  that  I  am  standing  on 
one  of  the  most  historic  and  beautiful  spots,  not  only 
in  this  country,  but  in  the  whole  world." 

All  the  old  meeting-houses  of  Boston,  if  we  agree 
with  an  opinion  expressed  by  former  Mayor  J.  V.  C. 
Smith,  M.D.,  in  the  year  1853,  such  as  Park  Street 
Church,  the  Old  South,  and  a  few  others  with  spires, 
were  superior  in  architectural  beauty  to  the  more 
modern  edifices  of  higher  cost.  For,  says  our  critic, 
"the  genius  that  is  among  us,  ready  to  be  exercised 
in  the  Metropolis  of  New  England,  seems  fated  to  be 
smothered  by  the  overruling  determination  of  old 
women  and  Deacons!" 

When  a  Church  was  to  be  built  in  Boston,  it  was 
customary  to  have  a  committee  appointed.  And 
oftentimes  no  two  of  any  such  a  committee  "had  a 
rational  notion  of  what  should,  or  should  not  be 

121 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

adopted  in  a  plan.  However  classical,  beautiful,  or 
grand  the  artist  may  have  been  in  his  projection,  each 
one  of  the  sapient  conservators  on  the  committee 
must  have  a  whim  gratified,  even  if  it  is  at  the  expense 
of  the  artist's  reputation.  Botch  after  botch  follows, 
and  when  the  building  is  fairly  completed,  they  are  all 
laughed  at  for  their  stupidity,  and  condemned  for 
their  vulgarity!" 

If  the  learned  gentleman  could  have  seen  some  of 
Boston's  Church  edifices  of  comparatively  recent 
years,  he  might  well  have  modified  his  above-quoted 
naive  utterances. 


THE  ESTATES  NUMBERED  EIGHTEEN 

AND  TWENTY  ON  THE  SOUTH 

SIDE  OF  BEACON  STREET 

Within  a  few  years  after  the  founding  of  Boston,  the 
Town  granted  to  the  Reverend  John  Wilson  (1588- 
1663),  pastor  of  the  First  Church,  about  an  acre  of 
land,  which  had  previously  been  a  part  of  the  Com- 
mon. This  land  was  "bounded  with  the  Burying 
Place  on  the  south,  and  with  the  Towne's  Common 
and  highway  on  the  west,  north  and  east,"  as  it  was 
then  fenced  in. 

The  same  lot  was  sold  by  Mr.  Wilson  to  James 
Oliver,  a  merchant,  October  8,  1661,  "  for  35  Pounds 
certain,  and  40  shillings  a  year."  *  This  property  ap- 
pears to  have  included  the  sites  of  several  of  the  upper 
houses  on  Park  Street,  previously  mentioned,  and  of 
all  those  on  the  south  side  of  Beacon  Street  between 
the  Athenaeum  Building  and  the  Common.  The  lot 
next  to  the  Amory-Ticknor  house  on  the  east  was  sold 
by  the  Town  agents  to  Thomas  Amory  in  March, 
1801.  This  lot  had  a  frontage  of  fifty-six  feet  on  Bea- 
con Street,  and  extended  southwesterly  one  hundred 
and  thirty-four  feet  to  the  Burying-Ground.  Mr. 
Amory  transferred  the  estate  in  February,  1807,  to 
the  Misses  Mary  and  Sarah  Payne,  twin  daughters  of 

1  Suffolk  Deed,  Lib.  3,  Fol.  489. 

123 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

William  Payne,  Esq.  Two  brick  houses  were  soon 
after  erected  on  the  lot.  For  more  than  thirty  years 
this  property  remained  in  the  possession  of  members 
of  the  Payne  and  allied  families.  Among  the  later 
occupants  of  these  houses  were  James  K.  Mills,  a 
dry-goods  merchant,  Dr.  Henry  G.  Clark,  and  the 
Honorable  Harvey  Jewell  (1820-81).  The  last-named 
was  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth  College  in  1844,  and 
served  for  several  years  as  Speaker  of  the  Massachu- 
setts House  of  Representatives.  While  holding  this 
position,  he  sustained  a  reputation  for  able  and  im- 
partial rulings.  A  man  of  scholarly  tastes,  he  owned 
"a  magnificent  library,  stored  with  the  choicest  and 
most  valuable  gems  of  literature."  His  brother,  the 
Honorable  Marshall  Jewell,  was  Governor  of  Con- 
necticut in  1869-72,  and  afterward  United  States 
Minister  to  Russia.  Mr.  Harvey  Jewell  was  engaged 
in  the  practice  of  law  in  Boston.  He  was  an  enthu- 
siastic fisherman,  and  an  expert  in  the  capture  of 
striped  bass  off  the  rocks  at  Swampscott,  where  he 
had  a  summer  cottage. 

Dr.  Henry  Grafton  Clark,  who  sold  this  estate  to 
Mr.  Jewell  in  1873,  was  a  well-known  practitioner  of 
Boston,  who  devoted  much  time  and  thought  to  mat- 
ters concerning  the  public  health.  He  was  the  first 
incumbent  of  the  office  of  City  Physician,  which  he 
held  from  1847  until  1880. 


NUMBER  SIXTEEN  BEACON  STREET 

Adjoining  the  Raymond  Building  on  the  north,  there 
is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  year  1921  a  small,  three-sto- 
ried, brick  dwelling-house,  numbered  sixteen  on  Bea- 
con Street.  Nestled  in  between  two  lofty  structures, 
it  seems  to  shrink  from  public  view,  as  if  abashed  by 
the  superior  dimensions  of  its  stately  neighbors.  In 
its  rear  an  iron  gate  stands  between  a  tiny,  brick- 
paved  back  yard  and  an  alleyway  leading  to  Park 
Street  alongside  the  Union  Club  House.  This  is  the 
last  house  on  this  portion  of  Beacon  Street  to  be  oc- 
cupied as  a  residence.  It  was  built  by  Robert  Fletcher 
about  the  year  1808,  and  was  sold  by  him  to  Rufus  G. 
Amory  soon  after.  The  premises  are  described  x  as  a 
parcel  of  land  with  the  buildings  thereon  "situate 
back  of  Bacon  Street,  beginning  at  the  house  occupied 
by  Samuel  Willard,  as  said  Fletcher's  tenant;  in  the 
middle  of  the  partition  wall  built  by  Christopher 
Gore  between  the  house  which  he  now  occupies  and 
the  residence  of  the  said  Willard."  In  December, 
1827,  this  estate  was  bought  by  Chester  Harding,  the 
well-known  portrait  painter,  who  lived  there  about 
two  years.  He  was  a  native  of  Conway,  Massachu- 
setts. When  he  was  fourteen  years  old,  his  father 
moved  to  central  New  York,  and  settled  in  Madison 

i  Suffolk  Deeds,  Lib.  228.  FoL  160. 

W5 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

County  which  was  at  that  time  an  uninhabited  wil- 
derness. Here  they  built  a  log  cabin,  and  reclaimed  a 
patch  of  land  for  cultivation.  In  1813  Chester  Hard- 
ing enlisted  as  a  drummer  in  the  army,  and  marched 
with  the  militia  to  the  border  of  the  Saint  Lawrence 
River.  He  next  became  a  travelling  peddler  and  af- 
terward found  employment  in  a  chair  factory  at 
Caledonia,  a  village  in  Livingston  County.  And  here 
he  met  his  future  wife,  Caroline  Woodruff.  A  year 
or  two  later,  in  search  of  more  congenial  work,  he 
tramped  afoot  to  the  head  waters  of  the  Allegheny 
River,  where  he  took  passage  on  a  raft  for  Pittsburgh, 
Pennsylvania.  After  tarrying  there  awhile,  he  re- 
turned through  the  wilds  to  Caledonia,  having  no 
guide  but  the  blazed  trees.  On  this  trail  he  saw  so 
many  bears,  wolves,  and  deer  that  he  would  hardly 
turn  to  look  at  them.  Returning  to  Pittsburgh  with 
his  wife  and  child,  he  found  occupation  as  a  sign- 
painter.  Having  met  there  an  artist  named  Wilson, 
he  became  interested  in  the  latter's  work;  and  this 
meeting  completely  changed  his  prospects.  Finding 
that  he  had  an  aptitude  for  portrait-painting,  he  be- 
came absorbed  in  this  new  vocation,  and  exhibited  so 
much  talent  that  his  portraits  found  a  ready  sale  at 
twenty-five  dollars  each.  After  a  course  at  the  Phila- 
delphia Academy  of  Design,  he  went  abroad  and  set 
up  a  studio  in  London.  On  his  return  to  this  country 
he  settled  in  Boston.  And  "to  that  city,"  he  said,  "I 
feel  that  I  owe  more  than  to  any  other  place.  More 

126 


NUMBER  SIXTEEN  BEACON  STREET 

of  my  professional  life  has  been  spent  there  than  any- 
where else.  And  it  is  around  it  that  my  most  grateful 
recollections  cluster."  In  the  latter  part  of  the  sum- 
mer of  1830  he  exchanged  his  house  at  Number  Six- 
teen Beacon  Street  for  one  at  Springfield,  Massachu- 
setts, which  was  his  home  in  later  years. 

Following  Mr.  Harding,  the  estate  was  owned 
successively  by  Adoniram  Chandler,  a  stereotype 
founder,  of  New  York,  and  Emily  Wolcott,  of  Boston. 
The  latter  sold  it,  November  24,  1863,  to  Levi  Bart- 
lett,  a  Boston  merchant,  who  had  occupied  it  many 
years  before.  Thereafter  it  became  by  inheritance 
the  property  of  his  daughter  Martha,  who  married 
Dr.  Henry  C.  Angell.  They  made  their  home  there 
for  about  half  a  century.  By  the  terms  of  Mrs.  An- 
gell's  will  the  estate  passed  to  the  American  Unitarian 
Association.  The  walls  of  the  various  rooms  were 
covered  by  valuable  paintings,  collected  abroad. 
There  were  several  landscapes  by  Corot,  and  as  many 
by  his  contemporary  rival,  Daubigny.  Other  famous 
French  artists  of  the  nineteenth  century  there  repre- 
sented were  Claude  Monet,  Jean  Francois  Millet, 
Troyon,  Diaz,  and  Dupre.  There  were  also  paintings 
by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds  and  Turner.  About  forty 
choice  pictures  of  this  collection  were  bequeathed  by 
Mrs.  Angell  to  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  The 
Angell  house  naturally  became  a  favorite  resort  of 
artists.  And  while  a  love  of  the  beautiful  in  art  was  a 
prominent  characteristic  of  both  Mrs.  Angell  and  her 

127 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

husband,  they  were  also  devoted  to  music,  and  wel- 
comed music-loving  friends  to  their  hospitable  abode. 
Passing  through  a  room  whose  walls  were  adorned 
with  engravings,  one  reached  a  cosy  little  sanctum  in 
the  rear,  where  Dr.  Angell  was  wont  to  entertain  his 
more  intimate  friends.  William  Howe  Downes,  the 
art  critic,  in  describing  some  of  the  pictures  in  this 
house,  mentioned  a  painting  by  Sir  Joshua  Reynolds, 
which  was  in  poor  condition,  but  capable  of  restora- 
tion. This  picture  was  a  likeness  of  Lady  Caroline 
Ponsonby  (1785-1828)  in  her  childhood.  She  was  a 
daughter  of  the  third  Earl  of  Bessborough,  and  the 
author  of  several  popular  romances.  She  married  in 
1805  William  Lamb,  afterward  Lord  Melbourne.  Of 
the  American  pictures  in  the  Angell  collection,  ac- 
cording to  Mr.  Downes,  the  only  one  of  importance 
is  the  work  of  Frank  Duveneck.  It  is  the  portrait  of 
a  solemn,  bespectacled  old  Professor,  who  looks  at 
you  through  his  glasses  with  an  inscrutable  air.  "A 
flawless  gem  of  art  is  Troyon's  Landscape.  It  is  as 
naturalistic  a  painting  of  open  air  and  sunshine  as  one 
will  find  anywhere.  It  is  a  miracle,  the  airness  of  it! 
It  makes  you  happy  to  look  at  it,  and  you  want  to 
whoop  for  joy!" 

In  the  autumn  of  1919  the  Angell  house  was  re- 
constructed and  adapted  for  use  as  an  annex  of  the 
American  Unitarian  Association  Building. 

A  door  on  the  west  side  of  the  front  entrance,  open- 
ing from  the  sidewalk,  and  overhung  by  the  second 

128 


NUMBER  SIXTEEN  BEACON  STREET 

story,  marks  the  place  of  access  to  a  passageway,  for- 
merly on  land  of  Dr.  Henry  G.  Clark,  and  used  as  a 
cow  lane. 

The  entire  building  has  been  renovated,  and  the 
windows  of  the  lower  floor  are  of  an  old-fashioned 
type,  having  small  panes.  The  Unitarian  Book-Room 
and  the  offices  of  the  "Christian  Register"  occupy 
this  floor.  Next  above  are  the  quarters  of  the  Reli- 
gious Educational  Society;  and  the  upper  stories  are 
provided  with  accommodations  for  the  clergy. 

Dr.  Angell,  after  graduating  at  the  Hahnemann 
Medical  College  in  1855,  studied  for  three  years  at 
the  University  of  Vienna.  On  his  return  to  Boston,  he 
became  prominent  as  an  eye  specialist,  and  was  for 
twenty  years  Professor  of  Ophthalmology  at  the 
Boston  University  Medical  School.  In  1882  he  was 
chosen  President  of  the  Philharmonic  Society. 


NUMBERS  TWELVE  AND  FOURTEEN 
BEACON  STREET 

A  lot  belonging  to  the  Town,  having  a  frontage  of 
fifty-six  feet  on  Beacon  Street,  and  running  back  to 
the  Burial-Ground,  was  acquired  in  1801  by  William 
Payne,  a  broker,  and  his  maiden  sisters,  Mary  and 
Sarah.  The  site  of  the  premises  is  between  the  Angell 
house  and  the  Athenaeum  lot.  Here  the  Paynes  built 
a  large  double  house,  with  an  archway  through  the 
centre,  leading  to  a  stable  in  the  rear.  Originally  the 
entrances  were  within,  on  either  side  of  the  archway. 
Later  the  houses  were  joined  by  the  removal  of  a  par- 
tition wall.  Mr.  Payne's  brokerage  office  was  in  the 
Exchange  Coffee  House  Building  on  State  Street. 
His  name  first  appears  as  a  resident  of  Beacon  Street 
in  the  Directory  of  1809.  The  easterly  house  came 
later  into  the  possession  of  John  Torrey  Morse,  Esq. 
And  as  early  as  1866  it  was  owned  and  occupied  by 
Charles  Merriam,  Esq.,  the  railroad  magnate.  The 
westerly  house  became  the  home  of  the  family  of 
James  K.  Mills,  who  lived  there  until  1858,  when 
the  property  was  bought  by  Charles  O.  Whitmore,  a 
well-known  merchant.  In  1886  the  City  leased  both 
houses,  which  then  belonged  to  the  Lexington  Build- 
ing Association,  and  there  brought  together  a  num- 
ber of  municipal  departments.  These  lots  are  now  the 
site  of  the  American  Congregational  Association's 
Building. 


THE  ATHEN.EUM  LOT 

Number  Ten  and  a  Half  Beacon  Street 

The  Boston  Athenaeum  had  its  origin  in  the  Anthol- 
ogy Club,  which  was  founded  in  1804.  Beading- 
Rooms  were  established  in  Joy's  Building,  Congress 
Street,  January  1,  1807;  and  in  the  following  month 
the  Anthology  trustees  were  incorporated  by  an  Act 
of  the  Legislature,  as  a  body  politic  under  the  name 
of  the  Proprietors  of  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  In  June, 
1822,  the  books  and  other  property  of  the  Institution 
were  removed  to  the  former  mansion  of  James  Per- 
kins, Esq.,  on  Pearl  Street,  and  there  remained  for 
about  twenty  years.  At  the  close  of  that  period  the 
locality  had  become  almost  wholly  occupied  by  mer- 
cantile buildings,  and  a  strong  sentiment  developed 
in  favor  of  removal.  In  1845  a  lot  on  Tremont  Street 
was  purchased.  This  was  soon  after  sold,  and  on  De- 
cember 1  of  the  same  year  the  Proprietors  bought  of 
Edward  B.  Phillips,  Esq.,  the  former  pasture  lot  of 
his  grandfather,  Lieutenant-Governor  William  Phil- 
lips, together  with  four  brick  dwelling-houses  stand- 
ing thereon.  The  lot  has  a  frontage  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-four  feet  on  Beacon  Street,  and  is 
bounded  by  the  Granary  Burial-Ground  in  the  rear. 
The  Corner-Stone  of  the  present  edifice  was  laid 
April  27,  1847,  and  the  books  and  art  treasures  were 
removed  thereto  in  July,  1849.  Among  the  more  pre- 
cious acquisitions  of  the  Athenaeum  are  many  volumes 

131 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

formerly  in  the  possession  of  George  Washington. 
These  were  procured  through  the  generosity  of  sev- 
enty gentlemen  of  Boston  and  Salem,  who  contrib- 
uted fifty  dollars  apiece  for  that  object.1 

1  Barrett  Wendell,  Litt.D.,  The  Athenaeum  Centennial. 


THE  MOLINEAUX  MANSION-HOUSE 
ESTATE 

On  July  14,  1760,  William  Molineaux,  a  Boston  mer- 
chant, bought  of  John  Alford,  of  Charlestown,  a  piece 
of  land  having  a  frontage  of  one  hundred  feet  on 
Beacon  Street,  and  running  back  due  north  three 
hundred  and  sixty-seven  feet.  It  was  bounded  on  the 
west  by  a  passageway  leading  to  the  Beacon,  as  shown 
on  a  plan  recorded  with  the  original  deed;  and  on  the 
northwest  by  the  summit  of  the  hill.  The  price  paid 
was  seven  hundred  and  eleven  pounds,  two  shillings, 
and  three  pence.  This  lot  was  a  part  of  the  large  es- 
tate of  Robert  Turner,  a  shoemaker,  and  one  of  the 
early  townsmen,  who  owned  eight  acres  on  Beacon 
Hill.1  On  this  commanding  site  the  new  owner  built 
one  of  the  most  pretentious  dwelling-houses  in  the 
town. 

William  Molineaux  was  a  distinguished  merchant 
of  Boston.  He  was  of  French  Huguenot  ancestry;  and 
during  the  years  immediately  before  the  Revolution 
he  attained  distinction  as  an  ardent  patriot.  He  was 
one  of  a  group  of  prominent  citizens,  who  were  wont 
to  gather  in  private  houses,  there  to  devise  measures 
which  proved  to  be  the  forerunners  of  a  united  oppo- 

1  N.  I.  Bowditch,  Gleaner  Articles,  page  92. 

133 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

sition  to  the  oppressive  policy  of  the  British  Crown. 
He  was  therefore  closely  associated  with  Samuel 
Adams,  John  Hancock,  James  Otis,  Joseph  Warren, 
and  other  leading  patriots.  Mr.  Molineaux  was  an 
influential  member  of  the  Sons  of  Liberty,  an  organ- 
ization founded  in  1776  or  thereabout.  He  was  also 
active  in  the  work  of  the  Committee  of  Correspond- 
ence from  its  origin  in  1772;  and  was  associated  with 
Paul  Revere  and  many  others  who  formed  the  person- 
nel of  the  Boston  Tea  Party.  Notable  among  the  en- 
terprises which  enlisted  the  aid  of  this  public-spirited 
citizen  was  the  establishment  of  Spinning  Schools, 
which  proved  of  value  in  developing  this  branch  of 
industry  in  the  community.  The  Town  voted,  April 
4,  1769,  that  the  sum  of  two  hundred  pounds  "be 
given  Mr.  William  Mullineux,  to  enable  him  to  pur- 
chase Spinning  Wheels,  Cards,  and  to  procure  con- 
venient places  and  Appartments  for  carrying  on  the 
Spinning  Business,  and  a  sufficient  number  of  Spin- 
ning Mistresses,  well  skilled  and  experienced  in  the 
Art  and  Mistery  of  spinning  Wool  into  good  Yarn;  he 
the  said  William  Mullineux  giving  Bond  to  the  Town 
for  his  finding  a  sufficient  number  of  good  Spinning 
Wheels  and  Cards  .  .  .  and  of  persons  thoroughly 
skilled  in  the  said  business,  to  teach  and  instruct  such 
as  are,  or  shall  be,  desirous  to  learn  it;  &  for  supply- 
ing sufficient  Quantities  of  Wool  fit  for  the  purpose 
aforesaid,  while  learning;  all  at  the  proper  Cost  and 
Charge  of  the  said  William  Mullineux." 

134 


THE  MOLINEAUX  MANSION-HOUSE  ESTATE 

The  Molineaux  homestead,  which  was  situated  on 
the  western  corner  of  Bowdoin  and  Beacon  Streets, 
now  a  part  of  the  State-House  grounds,  was  acquired 
by  Charles  Ward  Apthorp,  of  New  York,  who  was 
administrator  of  the  estate.  The  homestead  was  con- 
fiscated under  an  Act  passed  in  1781  by  the  General 
Court,  "to  provide  for  the  payment  of  Debts  due 
from  Absentees."  On  June  17,  1782,  it  was  sold  by 
the  Commonwealth  for  eight  hundred  and  fifty 
pounds  sterling  to  Daniel  Dennison  Rogers,  a  mer- 
chant, of  Boston,  who  there  made  his  home  for  about 
forty  years.  By  his  will,  dated  August  1,  1823,  the 
property  was  bequeathed  to  his  wife,  Elizabeth 
Rogers. 

Mr.  Molineaux's  store  was  described  as  being  op- 
posite to  the  east  end  of  Faneuil  Hall.  He  advertised  in 
the  "Boston  Gazette,"  October  31, 1757,  that  he  then 
had  on  hand  and  for  sale  "a  large  assortment  of  Iron- 
mongery, Sadlery,  Braizery  and  Cutlery  Wares.  Also 
tenpenny  nails  at  Seven  Shillings  per  thousand;  best 
London  Pewter,  at  One  Shilling  and  Five  Pence  per 
Pound;  and  other  Goods  in  Proportion."  William 
Molineaux  was  Mr.  Apthorp's  business  agent,  and 
in  that  capacity  he  rented  the  latter's  warehouses  on 
Wheelwright's,  now  Foster's  Wharf,  to  the  British 
authorities,  for  their  use  as  barracks. 

Charles  Ward  Apthorp  was  the  eldest  son,  and  one 
of  eighteen  children  of  Charles  Apthorp,  Paymaster 
and  Commissary  of  the  British  land  and  naval  forces 

135 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

in  North  America.  He  was  intimately  connected  with 
the  administration  of  public  affairs  in  the  Province. 
The  following  Notice  appeared  in  the  "Boston  Eve- 
ning Post,"  July  29,  1765:  "All  Persons  having  Ac- 
counts open  in  New  England  with  Charles  Ward  Ap- 
thorp  and  Company,  are  desired,  as  soon  as  may  be, 
to  adjust  and  settle  the  same.  And  those  that  are  in- 
debted to  the  said  Company  are  desired,  as  speedily 
as  possible,  to  pay  their  respective  Ballances."  The 
above-named  Company  "hope  that  none  will  lay 
them  under  a  Necessity  of  taking  any  Method  that 
may  be  disagreeable;  which  they  must  unavoidably 
do,  if  not  soon  satisfied." 

The  Molineaux  mansion  was  situated  a  little  south 
of  the  former  Beacon  Hill  Place,  now  included  in  the 
State-House  grounds.  It  was  a  large  double  house,  of 
a  type  then  popular  abroad.  On  either  side  were  a 
stable  and  wood-house;  and  between  them  a  long 
flight  of  stone  steps  led  up  to  the  main  entrance.  The 
estate  was  sold  at  auction  in  1833,  and  the  house  soon 
after  removed.1 

On  November  9,  1802,  Daniel  Dennison  Rogers 
sold  the  northerly  portion  of  his  land,  "being  about 
eighty  feet  of  the  depth  of  his  garden,"  to  William 
Thurston,  Esq.,  who  built  thereon,  two  years  later,  a 
large  three-storied,  swell-front  house,  which  became 
a  conspicuous  landmark  in  1811,  or  thereabout,  when 
a  large  part  of  the  hill  had  been  removed,  leaving  the 

1  Shurtleff's  History  of  Boston. 

136 


THE  MOLINEAUX  MANSION-HOUSE  ESTATE 

dwelling  perched  high  in  the  air.  A  view  of  this  house 
is  shown  in  the  "Memorial  History  of  Boston,"  iv, 
64.  It  was  taken  down  within  a  year  or  two  there- 
after. 

Mr.  Rogers  was  a  native  of  Exeter,  New  Hamp- 
shire. Instead  of  attending  college,  he  entered  upon  a 
business  career  at  an  early  age.  He  came  to  Boston 
soon  after  the  departure  of  the  British  troops  in 
March,  1776.  During  many  years  he  dispensed  hos- 
pitality at  his  Beacon  Street  mansion  in  the  lavish 
style  of  those  days. 

At  or  near  the  site  of  the  Molineaux  house,  and 
nearly  opposite  to  the  Angell  residence,  there  stood, 
at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  and  for  thirty  years 
thereafter,  a  one-storied  building,  occupied  at  one 
time  by  William  H.  Henderson,  who  there  conducted 
a  grocery  business;  and  a  sign  over  the  door  on  the 
Bowdoin  Street  side  served  to  remind  the  public  of 
that  fact.  Mr.  Henderson  was  succeeded  by  the  firm 
of  J.  B.  Clapp  &  Company.  Later  tenants  were 
Messrs.  Henry  and  Julius  Koopman,  dealers  in  an- 
tiques and  bric-a-brac,  who  remained  there  until  1893. 
There  is  an  excellent  picture  of  the  building,  as  it  ap- 
peared in  1880,  in  the  Collection  of  Views  of  Beacon 
Hill,  at  the  Boston  Athenaeum.  A  striking  feature 
of  the  picture  is  a  prominent  sign,  bearing  the  leg- 
end: "Clapp's  West  End  Shaker  Bitters.  The  Liver 
Cleaner." 

The  lot  whereon  the  building  stood  was  taken  by 

137 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

the  Commonwealth,  to  form  a  part  of  the  State- 
House  grounds,  under  the  provisions  of  an  Act  of  the 
Legislature,  June  29,  1894;  and  the  old  structure  was 
soon  after  demolished. 


THE  BOWDOIN  MANSION-HOUSE 
ESTATE 

By  virtue  of  a  deed  bearing  the  date  June  3,  1756, 
John  Erving,  of  Boston,  sold  to  James  Bowdoin  a  lot 
of  land  bounded  southeasterly  in  front  on  Beacon 
Street,  one  hundred  and  thirty-seven  feet;  south- 
westerly on  land  formerly  of  the  widow  Rogers;  and 
northwesterly  on  land  of  Mrs.  Middlecott,  sixty- 
seven  feet,  to  Mr.  Lynde's  Corner  where  a  locust  tree 
then  stood;  with  a  dwelling-house  and  other  build- 
ings.1 Here,  at  the  eastern  corner  of  Beacon  and  Bow- 
doin Streets,  Governor  Bowdoin  made  his  home. 
John  Erving  (1693-1786)  was  of  Scottish  lineage,  and 
became  one  of  the  most  prominent  of  American  mer- 
chants. He  was  Colonel  of  the  Boston  Regiment,  and 
a  member  of  the  Governor's  Council  for  twenty  years. 
Being  in  sympathy  with  the  Loyalist  element  in  the 
community,  he  retired  from  public  life  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Revolution.  His  daughter,  Elizabeth, 
married  Governor  Bowdoin.  In  September,  1765, 
Colonel  Erving  served  on  a  committee  to  wait  upon 
the  Honorable  Adam  Gorden,  M.P.,  who  was  then  on 
a  tour  in  America.  The  committee  was  charged  with 
felicitating  his  lordship,  in  the  name  of  the  Town, 
upon  his  safe  arrival;  and  was  instructed  to  bespeak 
his  kind  influence  in  favor  of  the  Town  and  Province; 

1  Gleaner  Articles,  No.  39. 

139 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

especially  in  regard  to  the  new  Parliamentary  Regu- 
lations, which  so  nearly  affected  the  Rights,  as  well  as 
the  Trade  of  the  American  Colonies;  and  which  had 
created  such  universal  uneasiness  among  His  Majes- 
ty's loyal  subjects  on  this  continent. 

Again,  in  April,  1776,  the  Honorable  John  Erving 
was  chosen  one  of  a  committee  to  draw  up  Resolu- 
tions, expressing  the  gratitude  felt  by  the  people  of 
Boston  toward  those  patriots  on  the  other  side  of  the 
water,  whose  endeavors  had  secured  the  Liberties  of 
America  by  the  happy  Repeal  of  the  Stamp  Act. 

The  Bowdoin  Mansion,  as  well  as  the  adjoining 
Bromfield  house,  was  set  back  from  the  street,  and  was 
reached  by  a  flight  of  stone  steps.  A  spacious  garden 
extended  over  the  brow  of  the  hill,  and  down  its  north- 
ern declivity  as  far  as  the  present  Ashburton  Place. 

The  Honorable  James  Bowdoin,  LL.D.  (1726-90), 
Harvard,  1745,  was  of  French  Hugenot  ancestr}7.  He 
was  President  of  the  Constitutional  Convention  of 
Massachusetts,  and  served  two  years  as  Governor. 
In  the  latter  capacity  he  showed  great  resolution  in 
quelling  Shays's  Rebellion.  Governor  Bowdoin  was 
the  first  President  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts 
and  Sciences;  and  from  him  Bowdoin  College  de- 
rived its  name.  He  was  described  by  the  celebrated 
traveller  and  patriot,  Jean  Pierre  Brissot  de  Warville, 
"a  brisk  little  Frenchman,"  who  visited  the  United 
States  in  1778,  as  "a  man  of  universal  talents,  com- 
bining the  virtues  of  a  magistrate  with  profound  eru- 

140 


THE  BOWDOIN  MANSION-HOUSE  ESTATE 

dition;  as  a  public  servant,  he  always  retained  the 
confidence  of  his  fellow  citizens."  By  his  will,  dated 
March  23, 1789,  Governor  Bowdoin  devised  the  Man- 
sion-House  estate,  including  a  portion  of  the  land 
formerly  belonging  to  his  father-in-law,  John  Erving, 
to  his  son,  James  Bowdoin,  Junior;  reserving  the  use 
of  the  same  for  Madam  Bowdoin  during  her  life. 

James  Bowdoin,  Junior  (1752-1811),  after  grad- 
uating at  Harvard  in  1771,  at  the  age  of  nineteen, 
went  abroad,  and  passed  a  year  at  Oxford  Univer- 
sity. He  was  with  General  Washington  on  Dorchester 
Heights,  March  17,  1776;  and  crossed  over  to  Boston 
with  the  Commander-in-Chief  on  that  day,  which 
marked  the  departure  of  the  British  soldiers,  and  of 
the  large  company  of  aristocratic  Loyalists  who  ac- 
companied them.  James  Bowdoin,  Junior,  was  a  man 
of  wealth,  liberal  education,  and  scholarly  tastes.  He 
gave  much  attention  to  agriculture,  and  to  the  breed- 
ing of  fine  horses  and  cattle.  In  public  life  he  served 
as  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  the  United  States 
to  Spain,  and  as  Associate  Minister  to  the  French 
Court.  Under  his  will,  dated  June  4,  1811,  he  be- 
queathed his  works  of  art,  together  with  his  library 
and  philosophical  appliances,  to  Bowdoin  College. 
The  Beacon  Street  homestead  passed  to  his  nephew, 
James  Temple  Bowdoin.  The  Bowdoin  line  is  extinct 
in  Boston,  but  the  name  is  perpetuated  in  the  College, 
and  in  three  public  thoroughfares  within  the  Metro- 
politan District. 

141 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

At  one  time  a  keen  controversy  developed  re- 
garding the  ownership  of  the  estate,  between  James 
Temple  Bowdoin  and  the  authorities  of  Bowdoin 
College.  Choosing  a  time  when  the  mansion  was 
vacant,  a  large  body  of  workmen,  acting  in  behalf  of 
the  College,  took  possession  of  the  premises  and 
hastily  constructed  a  temporary  wooden  building. 
Thereupon  the  agents  of  Mr.  Bowdoin  proceeded  to 
remove  the  obnoxious  structure;  and  these  proceed- 
ings met  with  public  approval,  as  a  distinct  allevia- 
tion of  the  monotony  of  everyday  life.1  On  Octo- 
ber 27,  1843,  James  Temple  Bowdoin,  Gentleman, 
sold  the  homestead  to  Theodore  Chase,  merchant, 
for  $9030.30.  Mr.  Chase  occupied  the  mansion  for 
about  seventeen  years;  and  his  widow  continued  to 
reside  there  until  her  death  in  1884.  On  May  19th  of 
that  year,  her  sons,  Theodore  and  George  Bigelow 
Chase,  conveyed  the  premises  to  the  American  Uni- 
tarian Association. 

The  front  of  the  Bowdoin  house  has  been  de- 
scribed as  having  a  covering  of  "smoothened  deal 
boards."  The  main  entrance  and  the  window  frames 
were  ornamented  with  carvings.  A  spacious  window 
over  the  front  door  afforded  an  excellent  vantage- 
point  for  the  display  of  a  large  illuminated  trans- 
parency, with  suitable  inscriptions,  during  patriotic 
evening  celebrations  or  other  popular  demonstra- 
tions. 

1  Gleaner  Articles,  No.  39. 


THE  BROMFIELD  HOMESTEAD 

Adjoining  the  Bowdoin  estate  was  the  residence  of 
Edward  Bromfield,  Junior  (1695-1756),  a  prominent 
merchant,  who  held  important  official  positions  in 
the  Province  and  Town.  These  premises  were  a  part 
of  the  possessions  of  Robert  Turner,  and  descended, 
through  his  son-in-law,  John  Fayerweather,  to  Wil- 
liam Allen.1 

In  May,  1731,  the  estate  passed  to  Samuel  Sew- 
all,  merchant,  for  a  consideration  of  seven  hundred 
pounds  sterling;  together  with  all  its  fences,  edifices, 
trees,  waters,  and  water-courses.  In  February,  1742, 
it  was  bought  by  Mr.  Bromfield,  whose  son,  Edward, 
the  third  (1723-46),  was  noted  at  an  early  age  for 
his  scientific  attainments  and  phenomenal  versatility. 
The  first  organ  made  in  America  was  the  product  of 
his  hands,  although  he  did  not  live  to  perfect  it. 
The  workmanship  of  the  keys  and  pipes  was  said 
to  have  been  extremely  clever,  surpassing  anything 
of  the  kind  that  had  ever  come  from  England.  More- 
over, he  made  microscopes  of  improved  design, 
grinding  the  finest  glasses.  "For  nearly  a  century 
the  sun  still  shone  through  a  hole  (in  the  shutter 
of  an  attic  window)  which  he  had  cut  for  his  solar 
microscopes.''2 

1  Gleaner  Articles,  No.  7. 

8  The  Memorial  History  of  Boston,  iv,  510. 

143 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

In  January,  1763,  Abigail  Bromfield,  widow,  and 
sole  executrix  of  the  will  of  Edward  Bromfield  the 
younger,  sold  the  homestead  to  her  son-in-law,  Wil- 
liam Phillips,  for  £1333  and  6  shillings. 

The  Honorable  William  Phillips  (1750-1827)  was 
a  wealthy  business  man,  of  Boston,  and  a  staunch 
patriot.  The  fact  that  he  was  familiarly  known  as 
"Billy  Phillips"  about  town  is  doubtless  evidence  of 
his  popularity.  In  like  manner  the  American  people 
love  to  designate  two  of  their  eminent  historic  per- 
sonages as  "Abe"  Lincoln  and  "Teddy"  Roosevelt, 
without  thought  of  detracting  in  the  least  from  the 
dignity  of  their  characters.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
Revolution  Mr.  Phillips  removed  his  family  to  Nor- 
wich, Connecticut,  where  they  remained  during  the 
Siege,  occupying  a  house  which  is  still  standing,  the 
reputed  birthplace  of  General  Benedict  Arnold.  Mr. 
Phillips  was  a  Deacon  of  the  Old  South  Church  for 
thirty  years.  He  also  served  as  a  Representative; 
and  as  Lieutenant-Governor  of  Massachusetts  for 
several  years,  during  the  administrations  of  Gov- 
ernors Strong  and  Brooks  (1812-23).  In  the  course 
of  a  eulogy  delivered  by  the  Reverend  Doctor  Wis- 
ner,  of  the  Old  South  Church,  the  speaker  remarked 
that  "scarcely  a  measure  had  been  adopted,  or  an 
association  formed  in  the  community,  for  the  im- 
provement of  the  physical,  intellectual,  moral  or 
spiritual  condition  of  man,  which  had  not  received 
the  liberal  support  of  William  Phillips."   The  two 

144 


THE  BROMFIELD  HOMESTEAD 

Academies  at  Andover  and  Exeter  are  enduring 
memorials  of  six  members  of  the  Phillips  family, 
representing  three  generations.  The  last  occupant 
of  the  Bromfield  mansion  was  Jonathan  Phillips 
(1778-1860),  Hon.  A.  M.  Harvard,  1818,  a  son  of  the 
Lieutenant-Governor;  who  succeeded  to  the  estate. 
He  was  a  member  of  the  General  Court,  and  served 
efficiently  as  an  Overseer  of  the  Poor  for  ten  years. 
Mr.  Phillips  was  associated  with  his  brother  Ed- 
ward, under  the  firm  name  of  J.  &  E.  Phillips,  dealers 
in  hardware  and  dry  goods.  Among  his  benefactions 
was  a  gift  of  ten  thousand  dollars  to  the  Boston 
Public  Library. 

The  Bromfield  mansion  was  remarkable  on  ac- 
count of  its  size  and  dominant  situation.  It  was 
built  in  1722,  and  is  shown  on  Bonner's  Map  of  the 
same  year.  At  that  time  there  were  but  three  houses 
on  the  upper  side  of  Beacon  Street,  east  of  the  present 
State-House  lot,  and  near  the  summit  of  the  hill. 
A  description  of  the  Bromfield  house,  as  it  appeared 
during  the  occupancy  of  Jonathan  Phillips,  is  given 
in  a  "Memoir  of  the  Life  of  Eliza  S.  M.  Quincy" 
(Boston,  1861).  "The  house  was  of  three  stories,  and 
richly  furnished  according  to  the  fashion  of  the  eight- 
eenth century.  There  were  large  mirrors  in  carved 
mahogany  frames;  and  one  apartment  was  hung  with 
tapestry  representing  a  stag  hunt.  Three  steep 
flights  of  stone  steps  ascended  from  Beacon  Street 
to  the  front  of  the  mansion.   And  behind  it  was  a 

145 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

paved  courtyard,  above  which  rose  successive  ter- 
races, filled  with  flowers  and  fruit  trees.  On  the 
summit  was  a  summer  house,  elevated  higher  than 
the  roofs  of  the  houses,  which  in  1861  formed  Ash- 
burton  Place,  and  commanding  a  panoramic  view 
of  the  harbor  and  environs.  The  hill  on  which  the 
mansion  stood  was  levelled  in  1845,  at  which  time 
it  was  taken  down;  and  the  site  is  now  marked  by- 
Freeman  Place  Chapel,  and  the  adjoining  houses  on 
Beacon  Street." 


THE  HINCKLEY  MANSION-HOUSE 

The  Reverend  James  Allen  (1632-1710),  son  of  a 
clergyman  in  Hampshire,  England,  came  over  to 
this  country  in  1662.  He  was  the  Minister  of  the 
First  Church  in  Boston  for  forty-two  years.  A  grad- 
uate of  Oxford  University,  he  served  as  a  Fellow  of 
Harvard  College  from  1692  to  1707.  Mr.  Allen  be- 
came one  of  the  largest  land-owners  in  the  commun- 
ity, his  holdings  including  a  large  portion  of  the 
present  West  End  in  Boston.  His  homestead  (being 
part  of  a  tract  of  eighteen  acres  bequeathed  to  him 
in  1671  by  James  Penn,  Ruling  Elder  of  his  Church) 
was  on  the  east  corner  of  Beacon  and  Somerset 
Streets.1  And  there  he  lived  in  a  two-storied  stone 
house  built  by  himself,  and  "maintained  the  style  of 
a  gentleman."  His  barn  occupied  the  corner  above- 
mentioned;  and  the  house  was  placed  about  seventy 
feet  to  the  eastward,  on  Beacon  Street. 

On  March  12, 1705,  Mr.  Allen  deeded  the  property, 
including  "the  Mansion-House,  with  the  land,  mem- 
bers and  appurtenances  thereof,"  to  his  son,  Jere- 
miah Allen,  who  became  Treasurer  of  the  Province 
in  1715.  On  the  latter 's  death  in  1741,  the  estate 
passed  to  his  son,  of  the  same  name  (d.  1755),  and 
later  was  inherited  by  his  grandson,  James  Allen,  of 

1  Gleaner  Articles,  No.  11. 

147 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

the  fourth  generation  from  the  emigrant  ancestor.1 
On  December  20,  1799,  the  latter  sold  the  homestead 
to  his  brother,  Jeremiah,  who  held  the  office  of  High 
Sheriff  of  Suffolk  County.  After  being  in  the  posses- 
sion of  members  of  the  Allen  family  for  nearly  one 
hundred  and  forty  years,  the  demesne  was  sold  by 
James  Allen,  January  8,  1810,  to  David  Hinckley,  a 
Boston  merchant,  who  took  down  the  old  stone 
house.  And  during  or  about  the  year  1814  he  built 
a  large  double  granite  mansion  on  the  premises,  and 
occupied  the  westerly,  corner  portion,  which  fronted 
on  Somerset  Street.  This  mansion  was  at  that  time 
considered  to  be  the  finest  dwelling-house  in  the 
town.2  It  was  elaborately  furnished,  and  filled  with 
beautiful  works  of  art,  together  with  many  costly 
statues  and  mirrors.2  The  progress  of  its  building 
was  interrupted  by  the  War  of  1815;  and  the  venture 
must  have  been  an  expensive  one  at  that  time,  when 
the  cost  of  materials  was  high.  The  window  glass 
and  cornices  were  said  to  have  been  imported. 

This  mansion  was  the  scene  of  a  tragic  occurrence 
in  July,  1820.  Miss  Anne  Hinckley,  daughter  of 
David  Hinckley,  had  taken  a  course  of  lessons  in 
modern  languages  under  the  guidance  of  a  young 
Neapolitan  named  Pietro  Perodi,  who  had  served 
in  the  Italian  army,  and  who  had  arrived  in  Boston 

t,  Nd  33.       2  The  Memorial  History  of  Botfon,  rv,  59. 
1  A  full  description  of  the  interior  of  this  house  is  given  in  some  unpub- 
lished Reminiscences  of  Mrs.  J.  Mason  Warren. 

148 


THE  HINCKLEY  MANSION-HOUSE 

some  three  years  before.  Here  he  obtained  the 
entrie  of  polite  society,  and  had  won  the  affection  of 
Miss  Hinckley.  Their  engagement  had  been  for- 
mally announced,  when  it  was  discovered  that  he 
had  made  false  representations  regarding  his  an- 
tecedents. This  fact,  and  her  father's  strong  oppo- 
sition, caused  the  lady  to  break  the  engagement. 
Unable  to  regain  her  confidence,  Perodi  became  des- 
perate. Repairing  to  the  Hinckley  home,  he  ran  up 
to  her  chamber,  where  she  was  engaged  with  a  dress- 
maker; and  there,  in  her  presence,  he  ended  his  life 
by  the  thrust  of  a  dagger.  Such  is  one  account  of 
the  melancholy  affair.  A  correspondent,  Syphax  Ter- 
tius,  in  a  communication  to  the  "Boston  Trans- 
cript," February  20,  1873,  stated  that  the  scene 
of  the  tragedy  was  the  house  of  a  friend,  Mrs.  Eliza- 
beth Davis,  who  kept  a  boarding-school  at  Number 
Three  Somerset  Place,  now  Allston  Street,  in  the 
immediate  neighborhood  of  the  Hinckley  residence. 
According  to  the  above  authority  Miss  Hinckley  had 
fled  to  Mrs.  Davis's  school,  to  avoid  Perodi. 

On  Mr.  Hinckley's  death  in  1825,  the  property  was 
inherited  by  his  daughter.  Not  long  after  she  mar- 
ried an  Englishman  named  William  Gill  Hodgkinson. 
On  April  25, 1832,  the  estate  was  bought  by  the  Hon- 
orable Benjamin  Crowninshield,  a  former  Secretary 
of  the  Navy  of  the  United  States,  for  $38,500.  He 
and  the  members  of  his  family  occupied  the  corner 
house  on  Somerset  Street  until  his  death  in  1851. 

149 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

In  the  following  year  this  house  was  acquired  by 
the  members  of  the  Somerset  Club,  and  was  occupied 
by  them  for  about  twenty  years.  In  1872,  or  there- 
about, the  Club  bought  the  Sears  mansion,  at  Forty- 
Three  Beacon  Street,  built  by  David  Sears  in  1819. 
Its  site  is  a  part  of  the  former  large  estate  of  John 
Singleton  Copley,  the  distinguished  American  painter. 
The  original  mansion  formed  the  western  half  of  the 
present  structure,  and  its  entrance  opened  on  a 
courtyard.  Later,  Mr.  Sears  built  another  house 
adjoining,  on  the  east;  the  older  dwelling  being  en- 
larged, and  both  forming  the  present  double,  swell- 
front  edifice,  facing  the  Common.  The  decorative 
carvings  of  the  marble  tablets,  above  the  bow-win- 
dows are  the  handiwork  of  Solomon  Willard,  the 
architect  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument.1  In  the  rear  of 
the  old  Copley  domicile  was  a  barn,  which  was  used 
as  a  temporary  hospital,  where  some  of  the  wounded 
British  officers  were  cared  for  after  the  Battle  of 
Bunker  Hill. 

The  easterly  portion  of  his  estate,  including  the 
land,  and  "the  large,  elegant  stone  house  and  other 
buildings  thereon  standing,"  was  sold  by  Mr.  Hinck- 
ley, December  20,  1820,  to  Benjamin  Wiggin,  Gen- 
tleman, for  forty  thousand  dollars. 

In  1825  the  ownership  passed  to  Joseph  Peabody, 
Esq.,  of  Salem,  who  gave  it  to  his  daughter  as  a 
wedding  present,  at  the  time  of  her  marriage  to 

1  History  of  the  Somerset  Club. 

150 


THE  HINCKLEY  MANSION-HOUSE 

John  L.  Gardner,  Senior,  an  enterprising  young  mer- 
chant in  the  East  India  trade.  The  house  was  the 
birthplace  of  his  son,  of  the  same  name,  whose  widow 
occupies  the  well-known  Italian  palace  in  the  Fen- 
way region. 

The  Hinckley  house  was  the  residence  of  the 
Gardners  for  many  years,  and  they  retained  pos- 
session of  the  property  until  1871,  when  the  Ameri- 
can Congregational  Association  bought  both  por- 
tions of  the  original  mansion  for  $292,000.  In  1904 
the  whole  edifice  was  removed,  and  a  new  building 
was  erected  and  occupied  by  the  Houghton  &  Dut- 
ton  Company. 


THE  SEARS  ESTATE 

The  two  brick  houses  on  the  westerly  corner  of 
Somerset  and  Beacon  Streets  occupy  land  formerly 
belonging  to  John  Fayerweather  (d.  1712).  *  The 
easterly  half,  including  a  wooden  dwelling-house, 
was  acquired  in  December,  1740,  by  Benjamin 
Green,  merchant,  "together  with  the  garden,  out- 
houses, buildings,  easements  and  fences,  ways,  pas- 
sages, waters,  watercourses,  rights,  members,  profits, 
privileges,  improvements,  commodities  and  appur- 
tenances thereunto  belonging."  Mr.  Green  bought 
it  for  a  residence,  and  was  living  there  in  1747. 
One  of  the  later  owners  was  John  Bowers,  of  Som- 
erset, Bristol  County,  Massachusetts,  who  had  laid 
out  Somerset  Street  in  1800,  and  had  given  it  the 
name  of  his  native  town.  In  May,  1803,  Mr.  Bowers 
sold  the  property  to  David  Sears,  Senior,  a  rich  mer- 
chant, "being  the  same  house,  stable,  outhouses  & 
land  now  in  the  occupation  of  said  Sears,  between 
Somerset  Street  and  Deacon  Phillips'  land."  Mr. 
Sears  was  one  of  the  very  few  millionaires  of  his  day. 
About  the  year  1815,  his  son,  the  Honorable  David 
Sears  (1787-1871),  Harvard,  1807,  built  the  two 
brick  houses  above-mentioned;  and  about  ten  years 
thereafter  he  built  the  westerly  half  of  the  stone 

1  Gleaner  Articles,  No.  37. 

152 


THE  SEARS  ESTATE 

mansion  on  Beacon  Street,  now  occupied  by  the 
Somerset  Club.  The  large  fortune  inherited  by  Mr. 
Sears  had  been  amassed  by  his  father  in  the  China 
trade.  David  Sears,  Junior,  was  a  member  of  the 
State  Senate,  and  an  Overseer  of  Harvard  College. 
Actuated  by  a  desire  to  promote  Christian  Unity,  he 
built  a  massive  stone  Chapel,  overlooking  Muddy 
River,  in  Long  wood.  This  Chapel  was  patterned 
after  the  Parish  Church  of  his  Sears  ancestors,  in  the 
ancient  town  of  Colchester,  Essex,  England.  His 
desire  was  to  found  a  Union  Church,  where  clergy- 
men of  different  denominations  could  officiate,  and 
where  sectarian  distinctions  were  not  to  be.  The 
edifice  was  dedicated  June  30,  1862.  The  brick 
houses  on  the  Somerset  Street  corner  were  the  former 
home  of  the  Boston  City  Club,  and  are  still  a  part  of 
the  Sears  estate. 


THE  LLOYD  MANSION-HOUSE 

At  a  short  distance  from  Ashburton  Place,  down  the 
incline  of  Somerset  Street,  on  the  right-hand  side, 
there  formerly  stood  a  double  brick  dwelling,  which 
was  built  by  the  Honorable  James  Lloyd,  Junior, 
about  the  year  1808.  The  site  is  now  covered  by  the 
Suffolk  County  Court-House,  and  formed  originally 
a  part  of  the  spacious  garden  of  Dr.  James  Lloyd, 
Senior  (1728-1810),  an  eminent  surgeon,  who  had 
an  extensive  practice  in  this  neighborhood  for  more 
than  half  a  century.  He  was  at  one  time  President 
of  the  Massachusetts  Medical  Society;  and  as  one 
of  the  consulting  physicians  of  the  Boston  Dispen- 
sary (founded  in  1796),  his  services  were  freely  given 
to  the  poor  without  fee  or  reward.  His  son,  above- 
mentioned  (1769-1831),  was  a  leading  merchant, 
and  a  member  of  the  United  States  Senate,  who 
strove  to  prevent  this  Country  from  entering  upon 
the  War  of  1812.  When  General  Lafayette  returned 
to  Boston,  to  take  part  in  the  ceremony  of  laying 
the  Corner-Stone  of  Bunker  Hill  Monument,  he 
was  entertained  by  Mr.  Lloyd  at  the  latter's  man- 
sion. And  during  the  forenoon  of  June  17,  1825,  the 
Grand  Master  and  Deputies  of  the  Masonic  Order 
escorted  the  General  from  that  house  to  his  place  in 
the  Procession.    Senator  Lloyd  occupied  the  dwell- 

154 


THE  LLOYD  MANSION-HOUSE 

ing,  at  Number  Twenty-Seven  Somerset  Street,  until 
1827,  when  he  removed  to  Philadelphia.  The  next 
occupant  was  Elijah  Morse,  a  prominent  lawyer, 
who  resided  there  until  his  death  in  1831.  He  was 
District  Grand  Master  of  the  Society  of  Freemasons. 

The  Lloyd  Mansion  was  one  of  the  old-fashioned 
kind,  with  solid  walls  and  high  ceilings.  It  was  built 
to  endure.  "On  the  ground  floor  a  large  arched  door, 
like  the  entrance  to  an  armory,  opened  from  the 
street  into  a  passage-way  leading  to  the  court  in  the 
rear.  This  was  used  for  provision  and  supply  wagons; 
and  here  the  cows  were  driven  home  in  the  after- 
noon. The  chimneys  were  massive,  and  suggested 
wide  and  warm  fire-places.  The  main  entrance  was 
up  a  long  flight  of  stone  steps,  and  under  a  generous 
porch."  * 

By  Mr.  Morse's  will,  dated  August  4,  1831,  the 
dwelling-house,  land,  and  appurtenances,  valued  at 
twelve  thousand  dollars,  were  left  to  his  wife,  Mary 
Morse.  And  on  July  13,  1832,  she  conveyed  the 
same  "genteel  premises"  to  Ebenezer  Francis. 

For  some  years  the  building  was  used  as  a  family 
hotel.  In  1833  it  was  kept  by  a  Mrs.  Lydia  Jackson, 
who  soon  afterward  married  the  Reverend  Lyman 
Beecher,  the  first  minister  of  a  church  in  Hanover 
Street.  As  late  as  1872  it  was  run  as  an  hotel  under 
the  name  of  the  Somerset  House. 

In  June,  1847,  Uriel  Crocker  bought  of  Jonathan 

1  New  England  Historic-Genealogical  Register,  vol.  41,  page  265. 1887. 

155 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

Preston,  Gentleman,  a  three-storied,  brick  dwelling, 
numbered  twenty-nine  on  Somerset  Street,  nearly 
opposite  Allston  Street,  being  one  of  a  block  of  three 
houses  built  by  Mr.  Preston  on  land  formerly  of 
Ebenezer  Francis.  Here  Mr.  Crocker  lived  for  thirty- 
eight  years,  or  until  1885,  when  the  estate  was  taken 
as  a  part  of  the  Court-House  site.  Uriel  Crocker 
formed  a  partnership  with  Osmyn  Brewster  in  the 
printing  and  publishing  business.  And  in  November, 
1886,  Messrs.  Crocker  and  Brewster  celebrated  the 
seventieth  anniversary  of  their  first  meeting  as  ap- 
prentices in  1800.  Mr.  Crocker  was  the  pioneer  of 
this  region,  in  the  use  of  an  iron-lever  printing  press. 


THE  PADDOCK  ELMS 

Around  the  corner  on  Tremont  Street,  alongside  the 
Burying-Ground,  fourteen  noble  English  elms  sprang 
from  the  sidewalk.  Of  majestic  height,  their  wide- 
spread branches  afforded  a  grateful  shelter  from  the 
sun's  glare.  They  were  planted  in  1762  by  Captain 
Adino  Paddock,  Loyalist  and  coach-builder,  whose 
workshop  was  across  the  way.  And  there  they  stood, 
braving  the  winter  storms  for  more  than  a  century  un- 
til the  year  1873,  when  they  were  ruthlessly  cut  down. 
While  still  fairly  vigorous  they  fell  under  the  dis- 
pleasure of  City  foresters,  victims  of  the  modern 
spirit  of  improvement,  which  gives  little  heed  to  his- 
toric sentiment  and  association  with  the  past. 

Only  two  years  before  the  removal  of  these  trees, 
the  Honorable  Nathaniel  B.  Shurtleff,  a  former  Mayor 
of  Boston,  thus  wrote  regarding  them:  "Far  distant 
be  the  day  when  these  old  trees  must  be  removed 
from  the  spot  which  they  have  so  long  occupied  and 
ornamented!  And  may  our  City  fathers  ever  regard 
them  as  among  the  cherished  objects  which  must  be 
preserved  with  the  greatest  care!" 

With  the  exception  of  the  Great  Elm,  which  was 
destroyed  by  a  storm  in  February,  1876,  but  two 
trees  are  shown  on  the  Common  in  Bonner's  Map  of 

157 


OLD  PARK  STREET  AND  ITS  VICINITY 

1722.  Both  of  these  trees  were  on  or  near  the  line  of 
Park  Street  Mall.  It  is  evident  that  popular  senti- 
ment was  divided  as  to  the  expediency  of  removing 
the  Paddock  Elms.  But  public  convenience,  together 
with  an  appreciation  of  the  need  for  better  traffic  con- 
ditions, finally  prevailed  over  sentimental  considera- 
tions. 

In  the  years  1824  and  1825  a  forester  named  Ira 
Adams  had  the  sole  charge  of  the  Common  and  the 
trees  thereon.  In  view  of  the  public  interest  in  the 
history  of  the  Paddock  Elms,  occasioned  by  their  re- 
moval, Mr.  Adams,  who  was  then  an  octogenarian, 
published  some  reminiscences,  which  appeared  in  the 
form  of  a  letter  addressed  to  the  editor  of  the  "Bos- 
ton Transcript,"  March  9,  1874.  Among  those  with 
whom  he  was  wont  to  converse,  while  engaged  in  his 
work  on  the  Common,  was  an  old  gentleman  named 
Benjamin  Callender,  who  in  his  younger  days  had 
carried  on  the  business  of  a  merchant  tailor  on  State 
Street;  and  whose  residence  was  on  Common  Street, 
near  the  head  of  the  Mall.  He  was  a  great  lover  of 
trees,  and  remembered  well  the  time  when  the  Pad- 
dock Elms  were  set  out.  Mr.  Paddock  had  them 
brought  in  from  Milton,  where  they  had  been  stored 
since  their  importation  from  England.  When  the  elms 
were  planted,  he  used  as  supports  a  lot  of  old  axle- 
trees,  which  had  accumulated  in  his  carriage-shop 
near  by.  Mr.  Adams  was  the  forester  who  planted 
with  his  own  hands  the  two  rows  of  trees  which  arch 

158 


THE  PADDOCK  ELMS 

over  the  Charles  Street  Mall,  with  the  exception  of  a 
very  few  at  the  extreme  southerly  end. 

Under  the  shade  of  the  Paddock  Elms  the  farmers 
sold  dairy  produce,  which  they  had  brought  from  the 
country  in  their  market  wagons.  And  here  too  their 
horses  rested,  and  enjoyed  their  noonday  provender. 


THE  TREES  ON  THE  COMMON 

Serious  injury  to  the  trees  on  the  Common  resulted 
from  the  great  equinoctial  gale  of  September,  1815, 
which  raged  with  almost  unexampled  fury  at  inter- 
vals for  two  or  three  days.  Perhaps  the  strongest 
evidence  of  the  storm's  violence  was  the  overthrow  of 
five  of  the  Paddock  Elms;  the  largest  of  these  having 
a  circumference  of  nearly  eight  feet.  Eleven  large 
trees  on  the  line  of  Beacon  Street  were  uprooted,  and 
more  than  twenty  stately  elms  on  the  Common  were 
laid  low.  Vivid  descriptions  of  the  tempest's  ravages 
appeared  in  the  "Boston  Gazette,"  the  "Columbian 
Centinel,"  and  other  local  newspapers. 

"It  excites  truly  melancholy  reflections,"  wrote 
one  observer,  "to  see  such  noble  trees  torn  up  by  the 
roots.  .  .  .  The  injury  done  to  the  Mall,  that  superb 
Promenade,  the  pride  and  ornament  of  the  Town,  will 
be  greatly  lamented."  Every  building  in  Boston,  it 
was  stated,  however  situated,  experienced  more  or 
less  damage;  many  of  them  being  unroofed.  Battle- 
ments and  balustrades  were  blown  down,  windows 
broken,  and  tiles,  bricks,  and  timbers  were  hurled 
through  the  air  in  every  direction.  The  uproar  was 
terrific  and  appalling.  Salt  water  from  the  ocean  was 
borne  forty  miles  inland  by  the  wind,  which  was  de- 
scribed as  "an  awful,  tremendous  blast." 

160 


TREES  ON  THE  COMMON 

In  response  to  a  request  for  information  about  the 
elm  trees  on  the  Common,  Frank  William  Rane,  Esq., 
the  State  Forester,  wrote  as  follows,  in  July,  1918: 
"In  looking  over  the  trees  in  this  neighborhood  I  find 
that  there  are  but  five  which  could  have  been  planted 
by  the  elder  Mayor  Quincy;  all  others  having  either 
died  or  been  taken  off.  There  are  three  elms,  one 
good-sized  one,  about  center  way  on  Park  Street,  and 
two  more  near  Tremont  Street,  which  may  have  been 
planted  at  that  time.  On  the  Common  itself  there  are 
two  more  good-sized  elms,  one  farther  up  toward  the 
State  House,  and  the  other  about  midway,  that  would 
appear  to  have  about  the  proper  age  alluded  to." 

In  regard  to  the  causes  which  have  led  to  the  re- 
moval of  so  many  of  these  trees,  the  State  Forester 
mentions  the  depredations  caused  by  insects  and 
diseases,  together  with  changes  of  the  grades  of 
streets  and  paths;  the  congestion  of  hordes  of  tramp- 
ing people;  and  gases  from  City  pipes.  All  these  have 
a  deterrent  effect  upon  tree  growth.  The  feeding 
of  trees  has  usually  been  the  last  consideration  shown 
them.  In  these  days,  however,  more  careful  study 
and  attention  are  being  given  the  subject. 

Dr.  Holmes  was  accustomed  to  carry  about  in  his 
pocket  a  string,  wherewith  to  determine  the  girth  of 
any  especially  large  tree  at  home  or  abroad.  "For," 
wrote  he,  "it  is  wonderful  to  note  how  people  will  lie 
about  trees!" 


THE  GINGKO  TREE  ON  THE  COMMON 

At  a  point  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  feet  eastward 
from  the  Guild  Memorial  Steps,  and  at  the  apex  of  a 
grassy  triangle,  whereof  two  sides  are  formed  by  Bea- 
con Street  Mall  and  a  pathway  leading  to  Winter 
Street,  there  stands  a  tall  Gingko  tree,  far  removed 
from  its  habitat  in  eastern  Asia.  Its  name,  we  are 
told,  signifies  "Silver  Apricot  Tree"  in  the  Chinese 
language.  Its  popular  title  is  "Maidenhair  Tree,"  on 
account  of  the  similarity  of  its  leaves  to  those  of  the 
maidenhair  fern. 

The  above-mentioned  tree  was  transplanted,  early 
in  May,  1835,  from  the  Gardiner  Greene  estate, 
which  was  situated  in  the  region  between  Pemberton 
Square  and  Ashburton  Place.  When  this  property 
changed  hands,  it  was  specified  that  the  Gingko  tree 
should  not  be  included  in  the  sale;  inasmuch  as  it  was 
at  that  time  the  only  one  of  its  kind  in  the  country, 
with  the  exception  of  a  specimen  at  Hyde  Park,  a 
township  on  the  Hudson  River,  near  Poughkeepsie, 
New  York.  Accordingly  this  tree,  which  was  then 
about  forty  feet  in  height,  was  transported  to  its 
present  site  in  the  Common  on  a  low,  four-wheeled 
truck,  built  for  the  purpose.  Its  removal  excited  gen- 
eral interest  at  that  time.  The  tree  has  been  over- 
shadowed by  neighboring  American  elms;  and  the 
loss  of  many  branches  has  detracted  from  its  former 

162 


THE  GINGKO  TREE  ON  THE  COMMON 

symmetry  and  beauty.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  this 
Asian  exotic,  now  for  many  years  a  naturalized  Amer- 
ican, may  long  continue  to  grace  its  conspicuous  sta- 
tion on  the  brow  of  Beacon  Hill. 

There  is  a  majestic  specimen  of  the  Gingko  family 
in  the  Public  Garden.  It  stands  at  a  distance  of  about 
forty  feet  southwesterly  from  the  so-called  Ether 
Monument.  Another  flourishing  Gingko  is  to  be 
seen,  nearer  the  pond.  In  the  public  pleasure  grounds 
of  Tokyo,  Japan,  are  some  noble  trees  of  this  genus, 
fully  one  hundred  feet  high.  According  to  naturalists 
the  Gingko  tree,  when  thriving  in  its  native  soil, 
bears  a  hard  nut  containing  a  kernel,  resembling  that 
of  the  apricot.  This  kernel  has  a  delicate  almond-like 
flavor,  and  is  esteemed  as  a  table  delicacy  by  the  Jap- 
anese. The  German  traveller  and  physician,  Engel- 
brecht  Kaempfer  (1651-1716)  wrote  that  it  was  an 
important  ingredient  in  several  Japanese  dishes.  And 
in  the  Far  East  these  nuts  were  believed  to  have  some 
therapeutic  value.  The  Gingko  is  a  hardy  tree,  and  is 
said  to  be  immune  from  the  depredations  of  moths, 
beetles,  and  all  other  enemies.  It  bears  no  fruit  until 
it  has  attained  the  age  of  thirty  or  forty  years. 

In  1832  Dr.  Alexander  de  Bunge,  a  distinguished 
Russian  scientist  and  explorer,  wrote  that  he  had  seen 
some  beautiful  specimens  of  the  Gingko  growing  in  gar- 
dens and  near  Buddhist  temples  in  northern  China. 
One  of  these  had  a  girth  of  about  forty  feet;  and  the 
only  other  evidence  of  great  age  was  its  towering  height. 

163 


ULMUS  CAMPESTRIS  VENERABILIS 

At  a  short  distance  above  Joy  Street,  and  close  to  the 
iron  fence  along  Beacon  Street  Mall,  there  is  a  mas- 
sive English  elm,  which  is  known  to  have  been  grow- 
ing there  for  at  least  one  hundred  and  forty  years. 
It  stands  on  a  line  leading  directly  north  from  the 
Gingko  tree.  An  elaborate  volume  entitled  "Cam- 
pestris  Ulm,"  by  Joseph  Henry  Curtis  (Boston,  1910), 
contains  an  historical  sketch  of  the  life  of  this  tree, 
and  describes  various  events  which  have  occurred  al- 
most under  its  shade  in  past  years.  Since  the  tragic 
fall  of  its  American  cousin,  the  Great  Elm,  in  1876, 
this  one  has  been  the  patriarch  of  the  Common,  and 
no  rival  claimant  for  that  distinguished  title  has  ap- 
peared. It  is  believed  to  have  been  planted  in  the 
autumn  of  1780  by  authority  of  the  Selectmen  in  re- 
sponse to  a  petition  of  John  Hancock  at  about  the 
time  of  his  inauguration  as  the  first  Governor  of  Mas- 
sachusetts under  the  Constitution. 


THE  END 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Adams,  Ira,  158. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  64. 

Adams,  Samuel,  20,  22,  48. 

Allen,  Rev.  James,  147. 

Allen,  James,  great-grandson  of 
Rev.  James,  147. 

Allen,  Jeremiah,  son  of  Rev.  James, 
147. 

Allen,  Jeremiah,  great-grandson  of 
Rev.  James,  148. 

Allen,  William,  143. 

Almshouse,  the  first,  32,  33;  the 
second,  33-35;  the  third,  35,  44. 

"America,"  the  song,  118. 

American  Congregational  Associa- 
tion's Building,  130. 

American  Education  Society,  118. 

American  Temperance  Society,  118. 

American  Unitarian  Association, 
127,  128,  142. 

Ames,  Fisher,  87,  93;  quoted  on 
Samuel  Dexter,  83. 

Amory,  Jonathan,  Jr.,  79. 

Amory,  Rufus  G.,  125. 

Amory,  Thomas,  79,  81,  82,  123. 

Amory,  Thomas  Coffin,  Jr.,  93. 

Amory-Ticknor  house,  the,  81-97. 
See  Ticknor. 

Angell,  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Henry  C, 
127-29. 

Appleton,  William,  106. 

Appleton,  Mrs.  William,  104. 

Apprentice  system  in  medicine,  105. 

Apthorp,  Charles,  135. 

Apthorp,  Charles  Ward,  135,  136. 

Armstrong,  Samuel  Turell,  49. 

Arnold,  Howard  Payson,  his  de- 
scription of  Number  Two  Park 
Street,  56. 


Athenaeum,  Boston,  131, 132. 
Atlantic  Monthly,  its  quarters,  62, 63. 
Austin,  Edward,  89. 

Bacon,  George,  77. 

Banner,  Peter,  116. 

Bartles,  Edward,  37, 

Bartlett,  Levi,  127. 

Baxter,  Mr.,  112.  _ 

Beacon,  on  Beacon  Hill,  the  first,  1 ; 
the  second,  2,  3;  description  of,  4. 

Beacon  Hill,  early  name,  forms  of, 
1,  8,  9;  beacon  on,  1-4;  Monu- 
ment, 3,  6;  description  of,  4,  5; 
the  three  hills  of,  6,  7;  measures 
for  preservation  of,  7,  8;  change 
in  western  side  of,  8;  as  seen  by  a 
Londoner,  9,  10. 

Beacon  Hill  Monument,  3,  6. 

Beacon  Street,  between  Somerset 
and  Tremont  Streets,  11;  laying- 
out  of,  11;  in  the  early  part  of 
the  eighteenth  century,  12;  value 
of  property  on,  13,  15;  and 
Thomas  Hancock's  estate,  13- 
15;  paving  of,  14;  widening  of, 
14;  first  brick  house  on,  16; 
charm  of,  17-19;  Numbers  Eight- 
een and  Twenty,  123,  124;  Num- 
ber Sixteen,  125-29;  Numbers 
Twelve  and  Fourteen,  130;  the 
Athenaeum  lot,  131,  132;  the 
Molineaux  mansion-house  estate, 
133-38;  the  Bowdoin  mansion- 
house  estate,  139-42;  the  Brom- 
field  homestead,  143-46;  the 
Hinckley  mansion-house,  147-51; 
the  Lloyd  mansion-house,  154- 
56. 


167 


INDEX 


Beecher,  Rev.  Lyman,  155. 

Belknap  Street.  See  Joy  Street. 

Bennett,  quoted  on  the  Almshouse, 
33. 

Bingham,  Caleb,  115. 

Blackstone,  William,  9,  12. 

Blake,  George,  20. 

Blanchard,  Frangois,  86. 

Boston,  winter  climate  of,  31;  in 
1809,  119. 

Boston  Common.  See  Common. 

Bowditch,  Nathaniel  Ingersoll,  3, 
4,13. 

Bowdoin,  James,  Sr.,  139-41. 

Bowdoin,  James,  Jr.,  141. 

Bowdoin,  James  Temple,  141, 142. 

Bowdoin  College,  140,  142. 

Bowdoin  estate,  the,  139-42. 

Bowen,  William,  2. 

Bowers,  John,  152. 

Brackett,  Mary,  epitaph  of,  49. 

Brewster,  Osmyn,  156. 

Bridewell,  the,  39,  40,  44. 

Bridgham,  Henry,  32. 

Brigham,  Benajah,  116. 

"Brimstone  Corner,"  117, 118. 

Bromfield,  Abigail,  144. 

Bromfield,  Edward,  father  and  son, 
143. 

Bromfield  homestead,  the,  143-46. 

Brooks,  Edward,  58. 

Brooks,  John,  95. 

Brooks,  Peter  Chardon,  58,  62. 

Brown,  Samuel,  35. 

Bulfinch,  Charles,  designer  of  Bea- 
con Hill  Monument,  3;  lays  out 
Park  Place  (Park  Street),  24. 

Bunker  Hill,  battle  of,  70. 

Burying-Ground,  Granary.  See 
Granary  Burying-Ground. 

Cabot,  George,  58. 
Cabot,  Mrs.  J.  Elliot,  73. 
Calhoun,  Andrew,  115. 
Callender,  Benjamin,  158. 


Carter,  Catherine,  her  boarding- 
house,  82,  93. 

Cemetery.  See  Granary  Burying- 
Ground. 

Center  Hill.  See  Beacon  Hill. 

Centery  Hill.  See  Beacon  Hill. 

Centinel  Hill.  See  Beacon  Hill. 

Centry  Hill.  See  Beacon  Hill. 

Centry  Street.  See  Park  Street. 

Century  Street.  See  Park  Street. 

Chandler,  Adoniram,  127. 

Charles  River,  7. 

Charles  Street,  the  laying-out  of,  7. 

Chase,  Theodore,  142. 

Choate,  Rufus,  90. 

Christian  Register,  offices  of,  129. 

Christian  Science  Church,  cradle  of, 
57. 

Clapboard  Street.  See  Joy  Street. 

Clark,  Dr.  Henry  Grafton,  124. 

Coast,  Long,  the,  26,  27. 

Cobb,  Richard,  83. 

Common,  Boston,  9,  10;  iron  fence 
of,  24;  Park  Street  Mall,  24,  29; 
pigeons  and  squirrels  of,  29;  Tre- 
mont  Street  Mall,  30;  games  on, 
113;  trees  of,  160-64. 

"Constitution,"  frigate,  46. 

Cooper,  Rev.  William,  75. 

Copley,  Singleton,  150. 

Copley's  Hill,  6. 

Cotton  Hill,  6. 

Court-House,  Suffolk  County,  154, 
156. 

Crocker,  Uriel,  155,  156. 

Crowninshield,  Anna  Caspar,  72. 

Crowninshield,  Benjamin  W.,  72, 
106,  149. 

Cunningham,  Captain  Nathaniel, 
estate,  13. 

Curtis,  Joseph  Henry,  his  book, 
"Campestris  Ulm,"  164. 


Davis,  Elizabeth,  149. 
Davis,  Isaac  P.,  51,  55. 


168 


INDEX 


Davis,  Jonathan,  58,  62. 
Dawes,  Thomas,  35. 
Dexter,  George  M.,  98. 
Dexter,  Katherine,  83. 
Dexter,  Samuel,  82,  83,  87. 
Doll  &  Richards,  111. 
Downes,  William  Howe,  128. 
Duff,  John,  61. 
Duveneck,  Frank,  128. 
D wight,  Edmund,  51. 
Dwight,  Mrs.  Thomas,  104. 
Dwight,  Timothy,  8. 
Dwight,  Miss,  111,  112. 

Elms,  the  Paddock,  157-60;  a  ven- 
erable elm,  164. 
Erving,  John,  139,  140. 
Eustis,  William,  95. 
Everett,  Edward,  90. 

Fairbanks,  Richard,  37. 
Fayerweather,  John,  143,  152. 
Fire,  the  Great  Boston,  110. 
Fleet,  Thomas,  50. 
Fletcher,  Robert,  125. 
Francis,  Ebenezer,  155,  156. 
Franklin  Monument,  48. 

Gardner,  Henry  Joseph,  76,  77. 

Gardner,  John  L.,  151. 

Gardner,  Gov.,  101,  103. 

George,  Mary  Morse,  155. 

George  Tavern,  the,  12. 

Gibson,  Mrs.  C.  H.,  109. 

Gingko  trees,  162,  163. 

Goodspeed  book-shop,  67. 

Gordon,  Adam,  139. 

Gore,  Christopher,  25,  75,  86,  87. 

Gore,  John,  emigrant  ancestor  of 
Gore  family,  75. 

Gore,  John,  descendant  of  preced- 
ing, 75. 

Gore,  John,  grandson  of  preceding, 
64,  69,  75,  76,  79. 

Gore,  Mary,  64. 


Granary,  the,  45,  46. 

Granary   Burying-Ground,   47-50, 

102-04. 
Gray,  Francis  Calley,  64,  69,  98. 
Gray,  Harrison,  89. 
Gray,  William,  65. 
Greenough,  Horatio,  76. 
Griffin,  Rev.  Edward  Dorr,  117. 

Haldiman,  General  Frederick,  26, 
27. 

Hale,  Susan,  quoted  on  ladies' 
apartment  of  the  Union  Club,  78. 

Hammond,  Mrs.  Samuel,  109. 

Hancock,  John,  13,  16,  48;  grave, 
111. 

Hancock,  Thomas,  his  mansion, 
13-15;  his  pasture  becomes  prop- 
erty of  town,  20. 

Hancock,  Mrs.,  16. 

Harding,  Chester,  125-27. 

Hawthorne  Hall,  56,  57. 

Heard,  Augustine,  61. 

Henderson,  Wrilliam  H.,  137. 

Hillard,  Mr.,  quoted  on  Jeremiah 
Mason,  90,  91. 

Hinckley,  Anne,  148,  149. 

Hinckley,  David,  148. 

Hinckley  mansion-house,  the,  147- 
51. 

Hodgkinson,  William  Gill,  149. 

Hodson,  Thomas,  7,  8. 

Holmes,  Dr.  O.  W.,  quoted  on  Dr. 
Warren,  71;  on  the  Registry  of 
Deeds  and  the  Probate  Office, 
84;  on  Dr.  Jeffries,  86;  anecdote 
of,  161. 

Homans,  Mrs.  Charles  D.,  73. 

Hough,  Atherton,  his  residence,  11. 

Houghton  &  Dutton  Company,151. 

Houghton  Mifflin  Company,  62. 

House  of  Correction,  39,  40,  44. 

Hull,  John,  48. 


Jackson,  General  Henry,  115. 


169 


INDEX 


Jackson,  Lydia,  155. 

James,  Henry,  quoted  on  the  State 

House,     19;     on     Park    Street 

Church,  116. 
Jeffries,  Dr.  John,  79,  86,  87. 
Jewell,  Harvey,  124. 
Jewell,  Marshall,  124. 
Joffre,  Marshal,  94. 
Joy,  Dr.  John,  17. 
Joy  Street,  early  name  of,  14,  16. 

Keayne,  Captain  Robert,  32. 
Know-Nothing  Party,  77. 

Lafayette,  General,  his  visit  to  Bos- 
ton in  1824,  93-97. 

Law-breakers,  44. 

Lawrence,  Abbott,  79,  101. 

Lawrence,  Katharine  Bigelow,  79. 

Leslie,  C.  R.,  90. 

Lloyd,  James,  St.,  154. 

Lloyd,  James,  Jr.,  154. 

Lloyd  estate,  the,  154-56. 

Loring,  Katharine  P.,  74,  92. 

Lovett,  James  D'Wolf,  on  coasting, 
27. 

Lowell,  Francis  C,  55. 

Lowell,  James  Russell,  anecdote  of 
Mayor  Quincy,  66. 

Lowell,  John  Amory,  78. 

Lowell  Institute,  78. 

Lucas,  E.  V.,  quoted  on  Beacon- 
Street  facades,  18. 

Lyman,  Mrs.  Charles,  104. 

Malbone,  Edward  Greene,  92,  93. 
Mason,  Jeremiah,  88. 
Mason,  Jonathan,  8,  55. 
Mason,  Susan  Powell,  107. 
Mason,  the  Misses,  16. 
Mayflower  Club,  73. 
Merriam,  Charles,  130. 
Miller,  Samuel  Ridgway,  62. 
Mills,  James  K.,  124,  130. 
Minot,  George  Richards,  35. 


Mitchell,  John  G.,  85. 
Molineaux,  William,  133-35. 
Molineaux  estate,  the,  133-38. 
Monument,  Beacon  Hill,  3,  6. 
Morse,  Elijah,  155. 
Morse,  John  Torrey,  130. 
Motley,  John  Lothrop,  110. 
Motley,  Mrs.  Thomas,  109. 
Mount  Vernon,  6. 

Neal,  Elizabeth,  48. 

Oliver,  James,  123. 
Osgood,  Lydia  N.,  84. 
Otis,  Harrison  Gray,  8,  86-89. 
Overseers  of  the  Poor,  32. 

Paddock,  Adino,  157-59. 

Paddock  elms,  the  157-60. 

Park,  Rev.  J.  Edgar,  quoted  on 
Park  Street  Church,  121. 

Park  Place,  24,  25. 

Park  Street,  early  names  of,  1,  24; 
in  the  early  part  of  the  nine- 
teenth century,  24-29;  Bliss  Per- 
ry's description  of,  28,  29;  Num- 
ber One,  51-54;  Number  Two, 
55-57,  101-11;  Number  Three, 
58-61;  Number  Four,  62,  63; 
Number  Five,  64-68;  Number 
Six,  69-74,  98-101;  Number  Sev- 
en, 75-78;  Union  Club  house,  79, 
80;  the  Amory-Ticknor  house, 
81-97;  reminiscences  of,  98-114. 

Park  Street  Church,  115-22; 
schools  in,  111-13. 

Park  Street  Church  Society,  117, 

Park  Street  Mall,  24,  29. 

Parsons,  Theophilus,  87. 

Payne,  Mary  and  Sarah,  123,  124, 
130. 

Payne,  William,  79,  86,  87,  130. 

Peabody,  Joseph,  150. 

Peabody,  Mrs.  Oliver  W.,  73. 

Pemberton  Hill,  6. 


170 


INDEX 


Perkins,  James,  181. 

Perkins,  Thomas  Handasyd,  28,  64, 

69,  75. 
Perkins  Institution  for  the  Blind, 

75. 
Perodi,  Pietro,  148,  149. 
Perry,  Bliss,  quoted  on  Park  Street, 

28,  29;  on  the  home  of  the  At- 
lantic Monthly,  62,  63. 
Phillips,  Abigail,  65. 
Phillips,  Jonathan,  16,  48,  145. 
Phillips,  Wendell,  birthplace  of,  16; 

at  time  of  Lafayette's  visit  to 

Boston,  94. 
Phillips,  William,  131,  144. 
Ponsonby,  Lady  Caroline,  128. 
Pound,  the  Town,  37,  38. 
Prescott,  W.  H.,  90. 
Preston,  Jonathan,  155,  156. 
Prison  Reform  Society,  118. 
Probate  Office,  O.  W.  Holmes  on,  84. 
Public  Garden,    Gingko  trees  in, 

163. 

Quincy,  Edmund,  10. 

Quincy,  Josiah,  the  elder,  29,  65- 

67,  100. 
Quincy,  Josiah,  the  younger,  62,  67. 
Quincy,  Josiah,  3rd,  67,  68. 

Rane,  Frank  William,  161. 
Rawson,  Edward,  47. 
Raymond,  Curtis  Burritt,  84,  85. 
Raymond  Building,  the,  84. 
Reed,  Elinor,  32. 
Registry  of  Deeds,  O.  W.  Holmes 

on,  84. 
Religious  Educational  Society,  129. 
Revere,  Paul,  48. 
Reynolds,  Sir  Joshua,  painting  of, 

128. 
Ripley,  George,  37,  38. 
Ritchie,  Andrew,  86,  88. 
Rogers,  Daniel  Dennison,  135-37. 
Rogers,  Elizabeth,  135. 


Rogers,  Simon,  12. 

Roy  all,  Mrs.,  quoted  on  the  State 

House,  18,  19. 
Russell,  Benjamin,  59. 

Sargent,  Lucius  Manlius,  on  Sam- 
uel Dexter,  83. 

Sawyer,  Matthias  Plant,  83,  84. 

School  Street,  name  of,  11,  12. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  portrait  of,  90. 

Sears,  David,  Sr.,  152. 

Sears,  David,  Jr.,  152,  153. 

Sears  estate,  the,  150,  152,  153. 

Sentry  Hill.  See  Beacon  Hill. 

Sentry  Street.  See  Park  Street. 

Sewall,  Justice  Samuel,  48. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  merchant,  143. 

Shackelton,  Robert,  quoted  on  Bea- 
con Hill,  17. 

Shaw,  Amy,  73. 

ShurtlefF,  Nathaniel  B.,  quoted  on 
the  Almshouse,  35,  36;  on  the 
Paddock  elms,  157. 

Smith,  Dr.  Jerome  Van  Crownin- 
shield,  15,  121. 

Smith,  Samuel  Francis,  author  of 
"America,"  118. 

Society  to  Encourage  Studies  at 
Home,  the,  92. 

Somerset  Club,  the,  150,  153. 

South  Latin  School  Street,  12. 

Spinning  Schools,  134. 

Stanwood,  Edward,  31. 

State  House,  laying  of  corner-stone 
of,  20-22;  completion  of,  22;  sub- 
sequent changes  in,  23. 

Story,  Judge  Joseph,  83. 

Sullivan,  James,  87. 

Sullivan,  John,  59. 

Sullivan,  Richard,  grandson  of 
John,  58,  59. 

Sullivan,  Richard,  son  of  Richard, 
59. 

Sullivan,  Mr.,  his  school,  113. 

Summer  Street,  16. 


171 


INDEX 


Sumner,  Increase,  22. 

Sumner,    William   H.,   quoted  on 

Lafayette,  95,  96. 
Swan,  Hepsibah,  115. 
Swift,   Lindsay,   quoted  on  Park 

Street  Church,  117. 

Thatcher,  Rev.  Dr.,  22. 
Thresher,  Francis,  34. 
Thurston,  William,  115, 117, 136. 
Ticknor,  Anna  Eliot,  92. 
Ticknor,  George,  25,  86,  89-92. 
Tower,  D.  B.,  112. 
Trees,  on  the  Common,  160,  161; 

Gingko,  162,  163.  See  Elms. 
Tremont  Street  Mall,  30. 
Trollope,   Anthony,   his  praise  of 

Boston,  17,  18. 
Turner,  Robert,  133,  143. 
Tweed,  Mr.,  112. 

Union  Club,  the,  75,  78-80. 
Unitarian  Book-Room,  129. 

Vergoose,  Elizabeth,  50. 
Vinton,  Rev.  Alexander  H.,  107. 

Walley,  Samuel  H.,  115.    ' 

Ward,  Artemas,  76. 

W7ard,  Lydia,  59,  61. 

WTard,  Thomas  WTren,  59-61. 

Warren,  Annie  C,  109,  111. 

Warren,  Emily,  106. 

W'arren,  James  Sullivan,  69,  101, 

104,  107. 
Warren,  Mrs.  James  Sullivan,  74, 

107. 
W'arren,  Dr.  John,  104;  deposition 

of,  42,  43;  career,  69,  70. 
Warren,  John  Collins,  the  elder, 

51,  55,  60,  98,  104,  107;  raised 

funds  for  Franklin  monument, 

49  n.;  career,  70,  71. 
Warren,    Dr.    John    Collins,    the 

younger,  career,  72,  73;  his  rem- 


iniscences of  Park  Street,   98- 

114. 
Warren,  Dr.  Jonathan  Mason,  69, 

104, 107,  110,  111;  career,  71,  72. 
Warren,  General  Joseph,  55,  70. 
Warren,  Joseph,  son  of  John  Collins, 

73. 
Warren  Building,  the,  56. 
Warren  Institution  for  Savings,  61. 
Warville,  Jean  Pierre  Brissot  de, 

quoted,  on  the  Workhouse,  43; 

on  Governor  Bowdoin,  140. 
Webb,  Henry,  32. 
W7ebster,  Daniel,  60,  61,  90. 
Welles,  Elizabeth,  55. 
Welles,  General,  51,  55. 
Wendell,  Judge  Oliver,  16,  17. 
Whippers,  39. 
White,  Richard  Grant,  his  opinion 

of  the  State  House  dome,  23. 
Whitmore,  Charles  O.,  130. 
Wiggin,  Benjamin,  150. 
Wigglesworth,    Edward,    emigrant 

ancestor  of  Wigglesworth  family, 

52. 
Wigglesworth,    Edward,    son    of 

Michael,  53. 
Wigglesworth,  Edward,  son  of  Ed- 
ward, son  of  Michael,  52. 
Wigglesworth,    the    sisters    Jane, 

Mary,  and  Anne,  51. 
Wigglesworth,  Rev.  Michael,  52, 53. 
Wigglesworth,  Thomas,  51,  53,  54. 
Willard,  Solomon,  48  n.,  116,  150. 
Wrilson,  Rev.  John,  123. 
Wines,  E.  C,  praises  Boston,  18. 
Winthrop,  Anne,  107. 
Winthrop,  Robert  C,  107. 
Wisner,  Rev.,  quoted  on  William 

Phillips,  144. 
Wolcott,  Emily,  127. 
Wood,  William,  quoted  on  Beacon 

Hill,  6. 
Woodruff,  Caroline,  126. 
Workhouse,  the,  41-44. 


172 


DATED^ 


UNIVERSITY 


?Ro5ucfs7iNC^859-5503 


BOSTON  COLLEGE 


3  903 


0 


572578  1 


iM#ai&«fr 


APR  2  7  f987 

APR  2T   1992 


F  73,67  .P3  L4  copy  2 
Lawrence?  Robert  Means?  1847 


Old  Park  street  and  its 
vicinity? 

Boston  College 
Libraries 

Chestnut  Hill,  Mass.     02167 


